A much-anticipated poll released by Quinnipiac University shows that Charlie Crist has a slight lead over Rick Scott, 39-37 percent, with Libertarian candidate Adrian Wyllie pulling in a surprising 9 percent of the vote.
When Wyllie is taken out of the survey, Crist's lead increases to 45-40 percent in a mano-à-mano matchup against the incumbent. Of course, that really doesn't mean much, because Wyllie will be on the ballot this November. The last time Quinnipiac surveyed the matchup between Crist and Scott, Crist led by 10 percentage points, 48-38, back in the spring.
But when it comes to favorability rankings, both major candidates take a hit; 45 percent of those surveyed have an unfavorable opinion of Rick Scott compared to 40 percent who look at him favorably. For Charlie Crist, his favorable/unfavorable numbers are also upside down at 40-42 percent.
On the question of whether Scott deserves to be re-elected, a majority, or 51 percent, say no. Just 40 percent say yes. When asked if he is trustworthy, the numbers break down the same way: 51 percent say no, 40 percent yes.
But the big news out of this poll is something we've been writing about for a few months now — the presence of a credible Libertarian candidate in Adrian Wyllie, and the folks supporting Amendment 2 who are fueling his rise in the polls, which if you break it down, actually hurts Charlie Crist more than Rick Scott. We'll have more on Wyllie in a later blog post today.
In other news...
Mayor Rick Kriseman defended himself yesterday in response to the carping about the process involved in hiring a new police chief. The mayor says that hiring Cleawater chief Tony Holloway was worth the extra hoops involved.
CL spoke with half of the St. Pete City Council to get their opinions about the choice and the process — and their responses were interesting.
And there's a large number of candidates running for school board in Hillsborough County in the District 6 race. USF educator Stacy Hahn says she's the best pick and tells us why.