A poll from Public Policy Polling (PPP) shows Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson ahead of three leading Republican candidates, who remain mostly unknown -- but the GOP hopefuls are starting to close the gap.
The poll -- with connections to prominent Democrats -- finds that Nelson, who has been in the U.S. Senate since first elected back in 2000 and on the Florida political stage for decades, remains unknown to almost a third of the voters. While 38 percent of those surveyed express approval of Nelsons performance and 31 percent disapprove of him, the remaining 31 percent remain unsure about Floridas senior senator. PPP found in a March poll that 38 percent of the state approved of Nelson while 34 percent disapproved of him.
In this new poll, when matched against various challengers, Nelson leads three Republican candidates by double digits. The poll also finds that the Republicans are starting to chip away at the Democrats lead and Nelson is not leading any of them by as much as he was back in March, despite the slightly lower disapproval rate.
Nelson topped former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, 46 percent to 35 percent. Back in March, Nelson led LeMieux by 15 points.
While Nelson beat former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner by 16 points in May, now the Democrat was up by 12 points, 47 percent to 35 percent.
State Senate President Mike Haridopolos trailed Nelson by 16 points in March and that margin also reduced to 12 points with the incumbent up 47 percent to 35 percent.
The poll found none of the three Republicans to be well-known despite all of them being wel- established officeholders.
LeMieux was the best known of the three Republican hopefuls with 9 percent favorability, compared to 22 percent who saw him as unfavorable and the remaining 69 percent unsure about him -- despite his 16-month term as the junior senator from the Sunshine State.
Haridopolos was even more unknown, with 7 percent seeing the state Senate president in a favorable light while 22 percent viewed him as unfavorable and the remainder were unsure about him.
Hasner remained the most unknown candidate with 4 percent seeing him as favorable, 18 percent as unfavorable, andthe remaining 78 percent unsure.
Bill Nelsons approval ratings arent setting the world on fire but he consistently shows double-digit leads over his prospective Republican opponents, said PPP President Dean Debnam.
The poll of 848 Florida voters was taken between June 16-19 and had a margin of error of +/- 3.4 percent.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.--
