Polling the Florida governor's race

By Richard K. Barry

A new survey by Public Policy Polling finds that Charlie Crist (D) leads Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) by 12 points in a possible 2014 head-to-head match-up.

Rick Scott's approval numbers have seen no improvement over the last two months, even after his decision to allow Medicaid expansion in Florida. 33% of voters continue to approve of the job he's doing to 57% who disapprove. Although his overall numbers are the same he has seen a slight improvement with Democrats (from 21/71 to 23/69) and a slight downgrade with Republicans (from 49/38 to 46/42). 

Scott continues to trail Charlie Crist by double digits in a hypothetical match up, 52/40. That's just a slight improvement for him from January when he was down 53/39. Crist, who still has a 28% favorability rating with Republicans, wins over 29% of the Republican vote and also has a narrow lead with independents at 47/41. Crist still isn't as popular as he used to be- a 46/43 favorability rating- but that's good enough against the backdrop of Scott's unpopularity to give him a pretty substantial early advantage.

PPP's analysis draws attention to the obvious, which is that 2014 is a long way off, though they admit that Scott's path to reelection is still pretty dicey. 

It would be sweet to get rid of him.