Florida Republicans are feeling sick to their stomach about a bunch of new poll results on Gov. Rick Scott (R).
The new polls show former Gov. Charlie Crist, Scott’s very likely Democratic challenger int he general election, with strong support across the state. One poll reported by the Miami Herald, for instance, has Crist beating Scott by 34 percentage points in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties.
“There’s no way to sugarcoat this: It’s awful,” a top Florida Republican told the Herald in response to seeing the crosstabs for the new poll numbers.
According to the Miami Herald, which rounded up the range of statewide polls from business interests:
10 percentage points — the margin Crist beats Scott by in another business interest’s statewide poll.
• 8 percentage points — the margin Crist beats Scott by in two other business interests’ statewide polls.
• 7 percentage points — the margin Crist beats Scott by in a fourth business interest’s statewide poll.
• 6 percentage points — the margin Crist beats Scott by in a poll of Republican-controlled state House districts across Florida.
• 4 percentage points — the margin Crist beats Scott by in North Florida, a Republican stronghold. The number is well within the poll’s error margin. But it’s a cumulative 17-point shift in favor of Democrats compared to 2010, and Sink would have won the governor’s race with this North Florida margin.
The Florida gubernatorial race is widely considered one of the top races of the 2014 election cycle and previous polling had only shown Crist with a slight lead over Scott.