Rick Baker Running Close to Charlie Crist in New Poll

A new poll shows former St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker runs close to former Gov. Charlie Crist in the race for the open congressional seat currently held by U.S Rep. David Jolly, R-Fla.

St. Pete Polls took a survey for Saint Petersblog which shows Crist slightly ahead of Baker, beating him 46 percent to 42 percent. 

When Crist is substituted with Eric Lynn, who had been running against Jolly before that congressman entered the U.S. Senate race, Baker routs the Democrat, beating him 51 percent to 28 percent. 

Matt Florell with St. Pete Polls explained how his company gathered the survey even before the redistricting has started. 

“Because of the wording in the court’s ruling, we concluded that district boundaries can’t cross long bridges as the only point of connection with the rest of the district anymore, which make Pinellas County a lot easier to map given it’s geography and population,” Florell said. “Taking the entire population from the 14th Congressional District at the southern end of the Pinellas County peninsula and adding it to the existing 13th Congressional District means that we have to remove roughly the same amount of residents from the northern end of the district. We decided to do this in the most compact and even way possible.”