According to a new survey taken this month, Gov. Rick Scott looks to be in “big trouble.” The Governor falls far behind both Sen. Bill Nelson and former Gov. Charlie Crist in a subscriber-only poll by the Kitchens Group.
Crist and Nelson both beat Scott by 64-35 percent, but that is only the beginning of his troubles. Former Scott rival Democrat Alex Sink of Tampa would win 59-41 percent, while former state Sen. Nan Rich, who has been struggling to get her name out to the voters, bests Scott 55-45 percent.
Kitchen’s poll was a forced decision between two candidates, meaning voters did not have the opportunity to select ‘undecided’ or ‘none of the above.’ That means it did not matter whether the voters actually knew anything about the candidates. The poll was conducted July 5-10, and has a margin of error of 3.8 percent, Kitchen said.
That’s all well and good, but as Democratic strategist Steve Schale tweeted: “… if anyone believes that poll, I’ve got some ocean front property in Ocala to sell you.”
Sure, sure, it’s easy to dismiss this poll, but what if the results had been different.
If Kitchens’ poll showed Crist and Scott tied or, imagine, Scott leading Crist, the Florida GOP would have held a press conference, sent out five e-mails, and melted down on Twitter crowing about the results. Lenny Curry would have been squawking ’til the cows came home had Scott finished ahead of Crist, Nelson or Sink.
Obviously that was not the case.
All then Florida politicos are left with is another poll, albeit one apparently conducted outside of a Carrabba’s, showing that Charlie Crist is twice as popular as Rick Scott.
And we really didn’t need a poll to tell us that.
