Charlie Crist Leads Rick Scott In Florida

Rick Scott Charlie Crist

A new Rasmussen poll has former Governor, and former Republican, leading his successor Rick Scott:

Republican-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist leads incumbent GOP Governor Rick Scott by six points in Rasmussen Reports’ first look at Florida’s 2014 gubernatorial race.

The latest statewide telephone survey of Likely Florida Voters shows Crist, who served as governor from 2007 to 2011, picking up 45% of the vote to Scott’s 39%. Six percent (6%) prefer some other candidate, while 10% are undecided.

This number is largely consistent with a SurveyUSA poll from earlier this month, and the RealClearPolitics average shows Crist ahead by an average of 3,3 percentage points. In fact, over the last year there has only been one poll showing Scott leading, and that poll only had him up by one percentage point. While all the usual caveats about it being early in the race still apply, Rick Scott is most assuredly on the list of vulnerable Republican Governors.

FILED UNDER: 2014 Election, Public Opinion Polls, US Politics, , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. The Republicans should have known that nominating Skeletor was a bad idea.

  2. BIll says:

    @Stormy Dragon:

    The Republicans should have known that nominating Skeletor was a bad idea.

    The Republicans should have known that nominating a crook was a bad idea.

    Seriously this Florida resident predicted Scott to be re-elected. I’ll sticking to that prediction. Crist is an opportunist, not a Democrat. He won’t appeal to the party faithful. Plus the Democratic party has done an attrocious job in statewide elections for 20 years other than Bill Nelson.

  3. aFloridian says:

    As a Florida Republican, I hope Crist wins. I held my nose and voted for Scott last time around, but now that there is a viable candidate, I’d be happy to see him go. I think Crist was a good governor for Florida, all things considered, and a lot of folks who were glad to see him go have realized it was out of the frying pan into the fire electing Scott.

    Granted, there are certain issues I worry about Crist on. Scott/Congress just lowered the atrocious DMV fees that came through on Crist’s watch (no coincidence with the timing, I’d imagine) and Crist has not been a very strong supporter of gun rights. On the other hand, I agree with his opposition to the oil business polluting Florida’s Gulf Coast and I would hope he could backtrack on the refusal to roll out the full Obamacare-Medicaid provisions, though that probably depends more on the state legislature, which shows no signs of relenting.