The new survey of the Florida Republican gubernatorial primary by Public Policy Polling (D) shows former healthcare executive Rick Scott with a big lead over state Attorney General Bill McCollum in the August 24 primary.
The numbers: Scott 43%, McCollum 29%. The survey of likely Republican primary voters has a ±4.9% margin of error, and there is no prior PPP survey of this matchup for direct comparison. The TPM Poll Average shows Scott leading McCollum by 42.3%-33.3%. PPP’s survey of the general election showed the presumptive Democratic nominee, state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, leading both Scott and McCollum.
The poll finds that Scott’s self-financing and his attacks against McCollum as a career politician have worked, while McCollum’s efforts to call attention to Scott’s past legal problems – his company paid $1.7 billion in fines and legal settlements for Medicare fraud — have not worked. Scott’s personal rating among GOP primary voters is 35% favorable to 32% unfavorable, while McCollum’s rating is in underwater at 26%-40%.
