With two months until Election Day, a new UF poll shows incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Scott leading Democratic nominee Charlie Crist by a six-point margin.
The results indicated a significant turnaround for Scott after a similar February poll released showed him trailing Crist by seven points.
The poll was conducted by the Bob Graham Center for Public Service with UF’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research, the Tampa Bay Times and Bay News 9.
“Scott’s campaign seems to be more successful than Crist’s in terms of having direct contact with voters,” said UF political science professor Michael Martinez.
The poll of 920 registered Florida voters suggests that Floridians are weighing many factors in choosing a candidate, said Christopher McCarty, director of UF Bureau of Economic and Business Research.
“The numbers are useful to the candidates’ campaigns, but they also give places like the Graham Center valuable information to inform voters on how the race is shaping up,” McCarty said.
The Graham Center is confident that the latest poll will closely reflect how Floridians vote come November, said Graham Center spokeswoman Shelby Taylor.
[A version of this story ran on page 9 on 9/5/2014 under the headline "New poll indicates six-point advantage to Scott over Crist"]
Correction: The web headline of this story used to have a typo that said "Christ" instead of "Crist"
