Dueling Polls Show Mixed Results for Sink and Scott; Here's Why

Who to believe? Who's first? Two new polls each give the Scott and Sink campaigns something to crow about.

Mason-Dixon reports that Democrat Alex Sink is up 7 points over Republican Rick Scott.

Rasmussen shows Scott leading Sink by 6 points.

If past performance is an indicator of future results, go with the Rasmussen numbers.

Mason-Dixon, you might recall, showed Bill McCollum beating Scott by 6 percentage points two weeks before the primary. That outlier survey was woefully off, as Scott won by 3 points.

While some have questioned the automated polling of the type done by Rasmussen, the bigger issue revolves around the actual sample. In the primary at least, it appeared that Mason-Dixon's "likely" voters didn't turn out the way they said they would. Unless that sample has been corrected, Sink's bubble could burst.

More bad news for Sink: Rasmussen found that 46 percent of likely voters view the former bank executive unfavorably while 45 percent have a favorable view -- a 20-point drop since Sept. 2.

Rebounding from Bill McCollum's sniping in the raucous GOP primary, Scott had a net favorable view among likely voters, 53-39.