A new poll from Public Policy Polling (PPP), a firm with connections to prominent Democrats, shows former Gov. Charlie Crist ahead of Gov. Rick Scott with a lead within the margin of error. Most recent polls have shown Scott with a slight lead over Crist.
The poll, released Tuesday, shows Crist taking 42 percent while Scott takes 39 percent. Libertarian Adrian Wyllie gets 8 percent in the poll. In that scenario, 11 percent of those surveyed are undecided.
When Wyllie is taken out of the mix, Crists lead is unchanged. In that scenario, Crist leads with 44 percent while Scott gets 41 percent. But, with Wyllie out of the equation, the number of undecided voters rises to 14 percent.
The sample from the new PPP poll includes 40 percent Democrats and 38 percent Republicans, though GOP voters usually turn out more in off-year elections.
Dean Debnam, the president of PPP, expects the contest to continue to be close.
PPPs conducted four Florida polls this year and Rick Scott and Charlie Crist have been within the margin of error on three of them, said Debnam. This one is definitely headed down to the wire just like the razor-thin contest Scott was first elected in.
The poll shows both Crist and Scott are upside down. Almost half of those surveyed -- 49 percent -- disapprove of Scott while 40 percent approve of him But Crist is also under water with 46 percent seeing the former governor in an unfavorable light while 40 percent view him as favorable.
Both the major party candidates keep their base. Despite only joining the Democrats in December 2012 after spending most of his political life as a conservative Republican, Crist gets 75 percent of voters who supported President Barack Obama in 2012. Scott keeps most of the voters who cast their ballots for former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., in 2012, taking 74 percent of them. Wyllie takes 7 percent of Obama supporters and 6 percent of Romney voters. Floridians who did not vote for either Obama or Romney are up in the air with 30 percent backing Crist, 25 percent going for Scott and 20 percent standing behind Wyllie.
The poll of 818 likely Florida voters was taken Sept. 4-7 and had a margin of error of +/- 3.4 percent.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
