Charlie Crist Up 8 Percent on Rick Scott in New Q-Poll

A poll of registered Florida voters from Quinnipiac University released on Thursday morning finds former Gov. Charlie Crist leading Gov. Rick Scott 46 percent to 38 percent. Crist is the favorite for the Democratic nomination despite spending most of his political career as a Republican.

Crist led by a similar margin -- 47 percent to 40 percent -- in a Quinnipiac poll from November, though he was beating Scott by 16 percent in a survey taken back in March. Last week, Public Policy Polling (PPP), a firm with connections to prominent Democrats, showed the race much closer with Crist leading 43 percent to 41 percent.

The poll shows Scott does better when matched against former state Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich, beating her 41 percent to 37 percent.

"At least for now, Florida Governor Rick Scott's comeback against his major Democratic challenger, former Governor Charlie Crist, has stalled after considerably narrowing the Crist lead in 2013, said Peter Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. And on several other measurements, Crist gets higher grades from the Florida electorate.

The poll shows that both candidates overwhelmingly get the support of their party base but independents break for Crist 48 percent to 36 percent.

A majority -- 54 percent -- of those surveyed say Scott does not deserve another term compared to 38 percent who say he does. Scott is upside down in the poll with 49 percent disapproving of his job performance and 41 percent approving of it. While 38 percent see Scott as favorable, 45 percent view him as unfavorable.

Crist gets better marks in the poll with 44 percent seeing him in a favorable light and 35 percent viewing him as unfavorable. A majority of those surveyed -- 53 percent -- approve of Crists term as governor though 36 percent disapprove.

Rich remains largely unknown, with 7 percent viewing her as favorable. 6 percent as unfavorable and 86 percent not sure about her.

"The best number in this poll for Crist -- and the biggest problem for Scott -- is that a majority of Florida voters say the current governor does not deserve a second term in Tallahassee, Brown said. Voters also give Crist a higher job approval for when he ran the state than any approval rating Scott has received in his three years on the job.

Despite the unemployment rate going up to 11.3 percent under Crists watch and dropping to 6.2 percent under Scott, the Democrat does better when it comes to the economy, with 47 percent thinking Crist would do a better job of managing it while 42 percent say Scott would. More than a quarter -- 29 percent -- of those surveyed say the economy is the most important issue in Florida, while 9 percent say education and 8 percent say health care.

"Almost a third of voters say the economy/jobs is the most important issue in the governor's race," Brown said. Most voters are satisfied with the way things are going in the state and more are optimistic than pessimistic about the future, but at this point Governor Scott isn't getting any credit for that good feeling."

The poll of 1,565 registered voters was taken from Jan. 22-27 and had a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percent.