Mayor Alvin Brown leads the pack in the race for a second term, but uncertainty is prevalent among likely voters in the latest University of North Florida elections poll released Thursday.
Brown received 37 percent of the vote among 546 likely voters the school polled Feb. 23-27. Lenny Curry was next with 25 percent, followed by Bill Bishop at 11 percent and Omega Allen at 2 percent.
The remaining 25 percent said they didn’t know who they’d vote for or refused to answer.
Broken down by parties, Brown fared better with Democrats (63 percent) and no party affiliates (29 percent) while Curry brought in the majority of Republicans (47 percent).
The margin of error for the poll is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Questions asked of the likely voters also showed insights into Brown’s approval rating and whether both he and Curry were seen as strong leaders and how much they cared about people.
The majority of those polled, 55 percent, said they either strongly or somewhat approve of the job Brown has done during his first term.
Conversely, 34 percent said they strongly or somewhat disapprove, while the other 11 percent didn’t know or didn’t answer.
Brown’s approval rating is down slightly from February 2014, when it was 59 percent.
Whether the voters thought Brown was a strong leader brought a more narrow margin: 44 percent said they did, 41 percent said they didn’t and 15 percent didn’t know or didn’t answer.
And asked whether Brown is someone “who cares about people like you,” 63 percent responded he did, 22 percent said he didn’t and 15 percent didn’t know or refused to answer.
The same questions about Curry showed uncertainty more than anything.
On whether they thought Curry was a strong leader, 23 percent said they thought he was, 15 percent said they didn’t and the vast majority, at 62 percent, didn’t know or refused to answer.
For the question about whether Curry “cares about people like you,” 36 percent responded affirmatively, 15 percent negatively and 49 percent said they didn’t know or refused to answer.
Voters also were asked to put the three frontrunners on a five-point ideological scale, rating from very liberal to very conservative.
Most said Brown was moderate, 29 percent, or slightly liberal, 27 percent.
Curry was seen as very conservative, 22 percent, or slightly conservative, 16 percent. And the overwhelming majority, 66 percent couldn’t or wouldn’t answer about Bishop.
The UNF poll also took a look at the sheriff’s race, which has seven candidates in the running.
Ken Jefferson led the way with 24 percent, followed by Mike Williams at 16 percent, Jimmy Holderfield at 10 percent, Jay Farhat at 7 percent, Tony Cummings and Rob Schoonover at 4 percent, Lonnie McDonald at 2 percent and “someone else” pulling 1 percent. The rest were undecided.
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