Poll: Charlie Crist approval at 42%; Gov race tied

The bottom is falling out beneath Florida’s once hugely popular governor.
A new St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald/Bay News 9 poll finds only 42 percent of likely Florida voters think Charlie Crist is doing a good or excellent job as governor, by far the worst approval rating of Crist’s 34 months in office. Thirty-nine percent said he was doing a fair job and 16 percent poor.
Even most fellow Republicans don’t like the job he’s doing. That 51 percent of them rate Crist’s performance as fair or poor is particularly ominous for someone facing an aggressive U.S. Senate primary challenge from former state House Speaker Marco Rubio of Miami.
“After nearly three uneventful years in the people’s mansion in which unemployment has reached double-digits across the state and the real estate boom turned into a foreclosure nightmare, Charlie Crist has finally made something drop like a rock — his approval ratings,” said pollster Tom Eldon.
Still, Crist’s political troubles appear to be more about his own vulnerability than Rubio’s strength.
In the Senate race, the poll found 50 percent of Republicans backing Crist, 28 percent Rubio, and 22 percent undecided. Even little-known and 22 points behind, however, Rubio poses a real threat to the self-described “people’s governor” no longer appreciated so much by people who overwhelmingly see Florida headed in the wrong direction.

A campaign 1,300 miles away reverberates into Florida

Why, you may wonder, would Marco Rubio be closely watching a Congressional race in upstate New York, when his hands are more than full trying to beat Charlie Crist for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination? Because that special election 1,300 miles away has real implications for his underdog campaign.

The New York race was the latest Battle For the Soul of the GOP election. It featured a Democrat, a liberal Republican, and a third party candidate, Doug Hoffman, who became a hero of conservative activists  across the country.

"If you live in NY CD 23 vote 4 Hoffman," Rubio tweeted Friday night. "Send message to those who want GOP to "moderate" that we do not need 2 Democratic Parties."

Marco Rubio "has a lot to learn"

The Republican U.S. Senate candidate clearly did not impress the editorial board of the Northwest Florida Daily News: He surprised us, though, when the subject was near-shore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Mr. Rubio said the United States must be allowed to exploit its own natural resources, such as by drilling for oil. He believes new technology and stricter state regulation will keep Florida’s beaches free of oil spills.

But he was unaware of military officials’ concern about expanded drilling, which complicates the issue here on the Emerald Coast. In June, the commander of Eglin Air Force Base’s Air Armament Center told our editorial board that more drilling in water ranges that are used for training will, “at some point,” have an impact on national defense.

Mr. Rubio said he would have to research the matter. The Miami resident also seemed unfamiliar with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s recent shutdown of amberjack fishing, which has riled folks in Destin. The most he could muster was a one-size-fits-all observation that federal officials were “overreaching.”

Poll: Voters support drilling

Florida voters want offshore oil drilling (but not really in Tampa Bay), oppose a so-called "public option'' for health insurance and overwhelmingly support a gambling agreement with the Seminole Tribe, according to a new St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald/Bay News 9 poll.

The common link among the three issues: the economy.

A full 44 percent of Florida voters said their personal financial situation worsened in the past year. Just 7 percent said it improved, and 48 percent said it stayed the same in a state racked by record unemployment, home foreclosures and budget deficits. By double-digit margins, Florida voters also believe the state and nation are on the wrong track.

With numbers like that, oil drilling is no longer a killer in Florida politics. And even the religious right supports a Seminole gaming deal — favored by 59 percent of voters overall — to bolster the state budget.

Health care ranked as the top concern, with 39 percent of voters saying it was most important to them. The No. 2 issue: unemployment, at 19 percent.

(Story here)

Times/Herald poll: Nearly half of Florida voters oppose 'public option' for health care

In a state where 20 percent of the population is uninsured, voters are opposed to a major Democratic plan to provide more health care coverage, according to a St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald/Bay News 9 poll.

About 47 percent oppose the so-called "public option," while 40 percent support the proposal to provide a government-run insurance plan.

Voters opposed the public option in every area of the state except one: South Florida. There, 54 percent favor the proposal and 37 percent are opposed. The Tampa Bay area had strong opposition, with 52 percent against and 33 percent supporting. (story here)

Report: Dockery will run for governor

Sen. Paula Dockery's hometown newspaper, The Ledger of Lakeland, quoting "multiple Republican sources," is reporting that she will enter the race for governor next week. The paper didn't talk to Dockery, who said on her Facebook page that she was attending a funeral on Friday.

"There is no news to share at this particular moment in time," Dockery said Friday evening. "I am going to announce my decision next week."

The 48-year-old Dockery was elected to the state House in 1996 and the Senate in 2002 and chairs the Criminal Justice Committee, and would be term-limited out of the Senate in 2012.

Her entrance would create a party fight with Attorney General Bill McCollum and set up the intriguing possibility that both parties would nominate women for governor for the first time in the state's history. (The Democrats' likely nominee is CFO Alex Sink).

Mrs. McCollum joins Toni Jennings on 'Women for McCollum'

Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum, facing the Democratic CFO who wants to be Florida's first female governor, is taking steps to reach out to female voters.

His gubernatorial campaign just announced the formation of “Women for McCollum,” which will have his wife Ingrid McCollum working with co-chairs former Lt. Governor and Senate President Toni Jennings and Republican National Committeewoman Sharon Day.  The aim: "to engage women of all ages and backgrounds and from every corner of Florida to elect Bill McCollum as Florida’s next Governor," according to the release just sent to the media.

McCollum is going up against CFO Alex Sink in the 2010 governor's race. Sink is a former Bank of America executive who has already started to portray herself as a working mother and "PTA mom" sympathetic to female voters' needs.
 
“I’m proud to lend my support to Bill McCollum because I know he’s the right person to lead our state during these difficult times,” said Jennings, who served under Gov. Jeb Bush. “We need solid, tested leadership as we tackle our tough challenges, and Bill McCollum’s unwavering commitment to the people of Florida and his vision for our future are more critical than ever before. Bill McCollum will get the job done.”

C.W. Bill Young among lawmakers named in House investigation

U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Indian Shores, is among a group of lawmakers under scrutiny by House ethics investigators looking at ties between defense appropriators and lobbyists, the Washington Post reported late Thursday.

The story is based on a confidential document posted online by a House staffer who has been fired. It shows investigators have been probing the relationship between seven members of the defense appropriations subcommittee and PMA, a lobbying firm founded by Paul Magliocchetti that has been under criminal investigation by the Justice Department.

But the chair of the House ethics committee, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif, issued a statement that said many lawmakers may be under review by the committee at any point in time. "No inference to any misconduct can be made from the fact that a matter is simply before the committee," she said in her statement.

Is your congressman nuts?

An homage of sorts to Alan Grayson: mycongressmanisnuts.com.

GOP prosecutor Pam Bondi close to attorney general decision

Republican Hillsborough Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi of Tampa said she's close to making a decision about running for attorney general and that Holly Benson's entry into the GOP primary "has absolutely no influence on my decision."

"Over the last few weeks I've received a great amont of encouragement and I'm very enthused and motivated and will make a decision very soon,'' said Bondi, a regular on Fox and CNN Headline News.