Is Charlie Crist Losing Ground in Pinellas County?

Pinellas County seems to be getting a little colder toward its hometown gubernatorial candidate, according to a new poll.

The StPetePollssurvey, which was commissioned by SaintPetersBlog, questioned607 random voters within those registered in SD 22, which covers southern Pinellas and part of Hillsborough County.Only those planning to cast votes in November were included in the poll.

When it came to whether respondents would choose to vote for Gov. Rick Scott or Crist, voters were split, with each candidate receiving under 44 percent.

Crist easily won the vote in Pinellas County during his Senate bid in 2010 as well as his first gubernatorial bid in 2006. Crist also took Pinellas County during his 2002 bid for attorney general -- in fact, the only time Crist lost an election in his home county was in 1998 during his Senate quest against popular incumbent Bob Graham. It seems somewhat surprising, then, that Crist and Scott would be so close in Pinellas for a candidate who's taken the county in nearly every major election he's participated in over the last 15 years.

StPetePolls took the poll on July 14 using a sample size of 574 likely SD 22 voters. The margin of error is +/- 4.1 percent, with 95 percent confidence level.