With Florida’s political world gearing up for a costly, divisive campaign, Democrat Charlie Crist continues to hold a comfortable lead over Republican incumbent Rick Scott in the battle for the governor’s office, a poll released Thursday shows.
Crist, who is trying to make a comeback after an earlier stint as the Republican governor, leads Scott by a margin of 46 percent to 38 percent, according to the Quinnipiac University poll.
Those numbers are similar to a November poll by the university that showed Crist ahead 47 percent to 40 percent. While Crist formally entered the race in November, polls earlier last year gave him double-digit leads.
Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said the new numbers show Scott’s comeback has “stalled” after the incumbent made up ground in 2013.
The poll indicates Crist has comfortable leads with closely watched groups such as independents and Hispanic voters.
Also, it continues to show that voters have a generally negative view of Scott.
As Brown noted, 54 percent of voters said Scott does not deserve to be re-elected, while 38 percent said he does. Those numbers have changed little since the November poll.
The Connecticut-based Quinnipiac regularly conducts polls in Florida and other states.
The new poll was conducted from Jan. 22 to Jan. 27 and included 1,565 registered voters.
The margin of error is 2.5 percentage points.