Charlie Crist Faces Tough Historical Odds

A Smart Politics review “of gubernatorial elections since the end of World War II finds that ex-governors have won back their old seats 57% of the time out of nearly seven-dozen such contests conducted during this 68-year period… However, a deeper dig into the data finds the odds of success fall off a bit when these ex-governors square up against an incumbent — like Crist would face in Rick Scott.”

“During these governor-on-governor battles, ex-governors have knocked incumbents out of office just 12 times out of 29 contests since 1945, or 41% of the time.”