A new poll released Thursday finds Gov. Rick Scott at the heels of former Gov. Charlie Crist, the front-runner for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, in a possible 2014 match-up.
The University of North Florida (UNF) released a poll showing Crist taking 44 percent while Scott follows with 40 percent -- within the margin of error. "Other candidates" take 2 percent while 14 percent of those surveyed are undecided.
In the UNF poll, Crists lead over Scott is based on his strength with independents. These voters break Crists way with 41 percent backing him and 33 percent favoring Scott. Crist had been a Republican until 2010 when he was caught by Marco Rubio in the GOP U.S. Senate primary. Crist continued his Senate bid with no party affiliation and lost to Rubio in the general election. After endorsing President Barack Obama in the presidential election, Crist joined the Democrats in December.
The UNF poll finds Scott does much better when matched against former state Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich, who is the only major candidate so far seeking her partys nomination, though Crist is expected to enter the race in the weeks to come. Scott takes 43 percent against Rich, who follows with 28 percent, while 2 percent back other candidates and 27 percent are not sure.
The UNF poll finds 49 percent of voters approve of Scott while 42 percent disapprove. Most other polls have found Scott upside down.
A majority of those surveyed -- 54 percent -- in the UNF poll agree that Medicaid should be expanded to cover more Floridians while 39 percent disagree and 7 percent were not sure. However a stronger majority -- 55 percent -- said they were not willing for their taxes to go up so that everyone in the state could get access to health care, while 41 percent said they would be willing to pay more.
The UNF poll of 526 registered Florida voters was taken from Sept. 30-Oct. 8 and had a margin of error of +/- 4.27 percent.
Last week, a poll from Public Policy Polling (PPP), a firm with connections to prominent Democrats, found Crist with 50 percent and Scott taking 38 percent. The PPP poll released last week found Scott edging Rich 37 percent to 36 percent. Scott was upside down in the PPP poll with 33 percent approving of his performance in Tallahassee while 55 percent disapprove.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinDerbySSN.
