Republicans got more good news from Florida besides the commanding lead in the Senate race for Marco Rubio. A new Quinnipiac poll corroborates an earlier Rasmussen poll showing Rick Scott, a Tea Party favorite, moving out to a statistically significant lead over Democrat Alex Sink. The trend shows Florida turning red once more after swinging to the Democrats in the 2008 presidential election:
Republican Rick Scott holds a 49 – 43 percent lead over State Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, the Democrat, in the race to become Florida’s next governor, according to today’s Quinnipiac University poll of likely voters whose overall low opinion of President Barack Obama appears to be dragging Sink down. …
Although Scott holds a 6-point lead in the horse race, the candidates have almost identical favorability ratings from Florida likely voters: 39 – 39 percent for Sink and 41 – 40 percent for Scott.
Florida likely voters disapprove 56 – 40 percent of the job President Obama is doing. Democrats approve 83 – 15 percent, while disapproval is 92 – 6 percent among Republicans and 56 – 38 percent among independent voters.
The Scott campaign sent out a statement today noting that this is the third major poll in the past week to show Scott in the lead. Rasmussen had Scott ahead 50/44, and the CNN/Time poll had it a bit closer at 47/45. Quinnipiac sees the race almost identically to Rasmussen, and well outside the margin of error.
The internals have some interesting data, especially on enthusiasm. Among Scott voters, 64% are voting for Scott, while 29% are voting against Sink. Sink voters look less enthusiastic about their candidate, with 58% voting in support of her and 35% voting against Scott. Scott scores higher on economic policy by nine points, 48/39, with that gap expanding to 48/34 among independents.
Finally, almost two-thirds of voters (64%) describe themselves as either dissatisfied or angry over the way state government works. Normally that would damage the prospects of the GOP, since the current governor is a Republican. However, Scott has succeeded in positioning himself as an outsider, while Sink is running on her experience as Florida’s current CFO — and who now faces questions about her stewardship of Florida’s capital. In the end, though, Quinnipiac pollster Peter Brown probably has it right when he postulates that Sink would be doing a lot better if Obama’s approval rating in Florida was 56/40, rather than the 40/56 Obama now has.
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