Rick Scott was already tied with John Kasich as the least popular Governor in the country in PPP's polling but now he has that designation all to himself. 59% of voters disapprove of Scott, up from 55% when PPP last polled the state in March. Only 33% think Scott's doing a good job.
Scott's numbers with Democrats are pretty much identical to where they were on the last poll. His standing with Republicans has actually improved a little bit, from 57/27 in March to now 63/30. Where he's really seeing a decline is with independents. He was already unpopular with them at a 31/54 approval spread but his numbers with them are even worse now at 27/64.
One potential future match up that would surely be a dream for political observers is a 2014 match up between Scott and his predecessor Charlie Crist. A plurality of voters in the state- 43%- think that it's time for Crist to switch to the Democratic Party compared to 26% who think he should not and 31% who don't have an opinion. Democrats are the group of voters with the largest net support for such a move, 46/18, and independents think he should make that flip as well by a 48/29 margin. Republicans are pretty evenly divided, saying 35/34 that Crist should move to the Democrats. GOP voters made it clear last year they didn't want Crist in their party but evidently they don't really want him in the Democratic Party either.
Crist would crush Scott in a hypothetical match up, 56-34. He would win a quarter of the Republican vote and takes independents by a 62-30 margin, in addition to pretty much sweeping the Democratic vote. Of course Democrats wouldn't need Crist to win if Scott stood for reelection today- in a rematch of their contest last fall Alex Sink now leads Scott by a 57-35 margin. Scott's unpopularity is such that the Dems could put up most anyone right now and knock him out of office.
Of course 2014 is a very long way off...full results here
What is the point of this polling? Seems the left has a fetish for driving the "buyers remorse' narrative of these governors. They aren't up for re-election for a long time. Why waste the resources?
ReplyDeleteI certainly didn't vote for him so I am not one who has buyer's remorse! I think this article is driving home that the majority of people don't care for his extreme policies. I know that I have been personally hurt by many of his policies as I am in education. My students have been as well. 2014 cannot come soon enough!
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding me? Buyers remorse? Why waste the resources? Thats like telling teachers, why teach this material, the test isnt going to be for a couple of weeks. I mean we are looking at someone who bought an election. Plain and simple. And if nothing else it should be an object lesson to the future.
ReplyDelete"They aren't up for re-election for a long time. Why waste the resources?"
ReplyDeleteIf all of these tea party governors are so unpopular , it makes strategic political sense to keep hounding until someone is recalled of moved out of office. On a larger scale, the fact that these tea-people are doing horrible things in their states is educational to the cant-make-up-my-mind independents. The more independents the Dems can gather, the better. The only way this works is by not letting up-Republicans do it all the time, now it's the Democrats turn.
The overreach of Republican governors is having an effect on the GOP brand and driving up Democratic interest, and cleaving the independents who were the GOP's savior in 2010 from the coalition. They're now turning Democrats' way sharply. That's the point.
ReplyDeleteScott is making an absolute mess, to the point that the Republican Party in Florida in 2012 might end up being analogous to the Republican Party in Ohio in 2006.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous wrote:
ReplyDelete"Why waste the resources?"
To establish a baseline, against which people can observe trends. That's not a "waste"; it's scientific data.
Also, it seems incredibly obvious that a question such as Q3 proves that this "buyer's remorse" affects a race that WILL be up for election in 2012.
"Have Rick Scott’s actions as Governor made it more or less likely that you’ll vote for a
Republican for President next year, or has it not made a difference?"
Still confused?
I hate this state sometimes. Rick Scott never should have been elected governor in the first place.
ReplyDelete