Charlie Crist Would Crush Rick Scott If He Ran As a Democrat in 2014

By Kyle Munzenrieder Tue., Jun. 28 2011 at 4:10 PM

We don't believe a guy as politically ambitious as Charlie Crist would be happy for long at an ambulance-chasing law firm. Though, now that he's left the Republican party there are few clear paths for him to get back into any office. Unless, of course, he becomes a full-fledged Democrat. A new Public Policy poll shows that Crist would absolutely crush Gov. Rick Scott in 2014 if he ran for his old governor's seat as a Democrat.

PPP finds that while Scott's approval ratings have risen exactly 1 percent since March, his disapproval ratings have risen by four points. His split now sits at an eye-popping 33/59 approval versus disapproval.

Floridians chose Scott to lead the state last November by about a single percentage point, but if the election were held today, Democrat Alex Sink would win 57 percent to 35 percent. That's about as big of a landslide as you could get in statewide Florida politics. Only 68 percent of Republicans say they'd vote for Scott. Eighty-eight percent voted for him November.

If Charlie Crist were to run as a Democrat for governor against Rick Scott in 2012, Floridians would favor him by a similar 56 to 34 percent. Democrats seem warm to the idea of calling Crist their own. Forty-six percent say he should join the party. Only 18 percent wouldn't welcome him into the fold.

So, uh, basically we should all be preparing for a Charlie Crist vs. Alex Sink Democratic primary in 2014?

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Tags:

Alex Sink, Charlie Crist, Rick Scott

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Jeffery Eisenbrei

modereate is not a bad word

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2014 is so far away it's hardly worth talking about. Floridians made their choice and now have to live with it. They had a perfectly fine alternative with former state CFO Alex Sink. They instead chose the very face of the subprime meltdown, the sketchy Scott. Voting in anger is almost never good.

Saint Petersblog

An afternoon with Charlie, the once-and-future Governor

http://bit.ly/m7IpEp

Fred

Wishful thinking that Scott would only be here two years. Governors serve for four last I checked. Am I missing something here? I would be delighted to be wrong.

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@Fred: Scott won his seat last November. He'd be up for re-election in 2014.

Fred

The article originally had 2012 instead of 2014, in case you did not see it as it was first written, before it was corrected.

Fred

I see they changed the article to reflect that. I thought I was going crazy with all the talk about 2012, but in a good way. What we need to do is work on getting the nutcases out of the House and the Senate so Scott won't be so powerful. That is the work that needs to be done in 2012.

Kevin Cerino

1. Polls just a year before the 2010 primary showed Crist crushing Marco Rubio. Rubio turned that lead around to the point that Crist determined that he could not win the Republican primary.

2. Crist could face the same problem in a Democrat primary. An upstart candidate can run a campaign pointing out Crist's past GOP positions, turning Democratic voters against him. There is video of Criist saying that he is a 'Jeb Bush Republican' and praising Sarah Palin.