Charlie Crist's Numbers Drop With Democrats in PPP Poll

A new poll shows former Gov. Charlie Crists numbers with Democrats are dropping, though he still holds a strong lead over former Florida Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich as they battle for their partys nomination to challenge Gov. Rick Scott in November. After spending most of his career as a Republican, Crist joined the Democrats at the end of 2012.

A poll from Democratic pollster Public Policy Polling (PPP) released Wednesday finds Crist taking 58 percent of likely primary voters while Rich garners the support of 16 percent. PPP released a poll taken at the end of September which showed similiar numbers with Crist at 59 percent and Rich at 16 percent.

But the new poll does show signs of Crist slipping. In the September poll, 62 percent of Democratic primary voters saw Crist in a favorable light and 23 percent saw him as unfavorable. Now 51 percent of Democratic primary voters see Crist as favorable and 27 percent see him as unfavorable. Rich has made little progress at Crists expense as currently 13 percent of primary voters see her as favorable, the same as it was in September, and 18 percent see her as unfavorable, down slightly from 23 percent in the earlier poll.

The poll of 243 likely Democratic primary voters was taken from Jan. 16-21 and had a margin of error of +/- 6.3 percent.