A new Quinnipiac poll in Florida finds Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) has taken the lead over Gov. Rick Scott (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 53% to 46%.
Among Florida likely voters who name a candidate choice, 94% say their mind is made up.
A new Quinnipiac poll in Florida finds Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) has taken the lead over Gov. Rick Scott (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 53% to 46%.
Among Florida likely voters who name a candidate choice, 94% say their mind is made up.
A new University of North Florida poll finds Andrew Gillum (D) is maintaining a slight lead over Ron DeSantis (R) in Florida’s race for governor, 47% to 43%.
In the U.S. Senate race, Sen. Bill Nelson (D) and Gov. Rick Scott (R) are tied, 45% to 45%.
A new Florida Atlantic University poll shows Gov. Rick Scott (R) just ahead of Sen. Bill Nelson (D) in their U.S. Senate race, 42% to 41% with 11% undecided.
In August, Scott led 45% to 39% with 16% undecided.
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Reuters/Ipsos surveyed four U.S. Senate battlegrounds and found very tight races:
And the governor’s races in the same states:
“With the noxious odor of red tide hanging in the air and a fresh wave of dead fish washing up on nearby Gulf beaches, a large crowd of people incensed about the devastating algae bloom that has plagued the region for months directed their anger at Gov. Rick Scott (R) during a campaign event,” the Sarasota Herald Tribune reports.
The protesters forced Scott “to enter the restaurant through the back door and leave the same way after just 10 minutes as members of the crowd shouted ‘coward.'”
“The Republican governor is on the defensive about his environmental record as he tries to unseat Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL). Protesters gathered Monday took aim at Scott for cutting funding for environmental agencies early in his first term, arguing Scott’s cost-cutting and deregulation have kept the state from implementing measures that could have helped minimize naturally occurring red tide blooms.”
Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) “used his private jet Tuesday to commute to a Senate campaign stop for his ‘bus tour,’ marking his second stumble since announcing he was traveling the Florida highways this week to ‘Make Washington Work,'” Politico reports.
“Scott has removed his jet’s tail numbers from public flight-tracking services, making his whereabouts and travel schedule so secret that one advocacy group went to court last week to force him to disclose his itinerary.”
“Florida Republican Rick Scott is as close as any governor with Donald Trump. Yet it’s former President George W. Bush, no friend to Trump, who will join Scott at two fundraisers for a super PAC backing Scott’s Senate campaign Friday. It’s the latest instance of the Florida governor visibly tying his political fortunes to a prominent Republican other than the current president,” Politico reports.
“Scott — who was frequently by Trump’s side at the White House and at his resorts in Palm Beach and Bedminster, New Jersey, in 2017 — began putting more distance between himself and the unpopular president this year as he geared up for a Senate run that Trump himself had repeatedly urged him to make. Scott also chaired the super PAC backing Trump’s 2016 presidential bid. Now Scott seldom mentions the president and won’t commit to having an event with him specifically.”
A new Quinnipiac poll in Florida finds Sen. Bill Nelson (D) and Gov. Rick Scott (R) locked in a 49% to 49% dead heat among likely voters in the U.S. Senate race.
Said pollster Peter Brown: “The campaign is a prototype of our nation’s political environment: Nelson carries women and black voters, while Scott wins among men and white voters. The key in close elections like this one often lies with independent voters. So far, Sen. Nelson has the edge with this swing group. The candidate who holds those voters in November is likely to win.”
“Andrew Gillum (D) rode a late surge of African-American voters to an upset victory in the Democratic primary Tuesday and a historic opportunity to become the first black governor in Florida history,” the Miami Herald reports.
Vox: “Gillum is the first black Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Florida history. He won out over Gwen Graham, a former member of Congress, the daughter of a former governor and senator, and the presumed Democratic frontrunner; former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine; and businessman Jeff Greene. He will face Republican Ron DeSantis in November’s general election, a race that election forecasters have rated a toss-up.”
Politico: “Privately, a number of Democratic senators have offered their unsolicited view that Nelson is in for a reckoning on Election Day, which would cost Democrats any hope of winning back the Senate. Nelson is a classic old-school senator who keeps his head down and does his work, which is effective in the Capitol but less so in a Trump-era campaign in the most expensive battleground state. He’s being vastly outspent, and there’s concern in Florida the national party might cut him loose if a loss looks certain in the expensive Sunshine State.”
“And Florida Democrats fret that the low-key third-term senator has not been visible enough while Scott is seemingly everywhere.”
“Locked in one of the nation’s costliest elections, Gov. Rick Scott (R) is pulling campaign money not only from his own pocket and from major GOP national donors but also from another rich vein of cash,” the Ocala Star Banner reports.
“Well-heeled Floridians appointed by Scott to a number of state boards during his two terms as governor are ponying up to help him unseat three-term Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL).”
“Scott has collected close to $1.4 million from 127 appointees, their spouses and children, who have given either to his Senate campaign or the New Republican PAC supporting his bid.”
“Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) holds a narrow 44% to 41% lead over Gov. Rick Scott (R) among Latino voters in Florida’s Senate race, according to a new poll that’s raising fresh concerns among Democrats that the incumbent is in a dicey position with a core group of voters he needs to carry by bigger margins,” Politico reports.
“For Democrats, those numbers are a problem because a Republican who wins as much of the Hispanic vote as Scott is taking usually wins statewide in Florida. Democrats outnumbered Republicans in the survey by 40% to 33%.”
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) told the Tampa Bay Times that Russian operatives have “penetrated” some of Florida’s election systems ahead of the 2018 midterms.
Said Nelson: “They have already penetrated certain counties in the state and they now have free rein to move about.”
But he wouldn’t elaborate: “That’s classified.”
A new Mason-Dixon poll in Florida finds Gov. Rick Scott (R) leads Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) in the U.S. Senate race, 47% to 44%, a net shift of about 4 points in the Republican’s favor since the firm’s last poll in February when the race was a dead heat.
Said pollster Brad Coker: “It’s going to be a slugfest. Nelson is hoping for a blue wave, and Scott is counting on Trump motivating his base of voters. Rick Scott has yet to have a landslide win. So I don’t anticipate him winning by a big amount if he does win.”
Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) announced that his campaign has raised more than $10.7 million in three months — three times what incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) received, Roll Call reports.
“Scott himself has not contributed any money to the campaign… even though he reported a net worth of $149 million last year. Scott has a track record of donating to his own campaigns: $75 million in his 2010 bid for governor and $12.8 million in his 2014 reelection campaign.”
A new NBC News/Marist poll shows Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) with a four-point lead over Gov. Rick Scott (R) in the race for U.S. Senate, 49% to 45%.
A new CBS News poll in Florida shows Gov. Rick Scott (R) leading Sen. Bill Nelson (D) in the U.S. Senate race, 46% to 41%.
A new Politico/AARP poll in Florida finds Gov. Rick Scott (R) is virtually tied with Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) among Florida voters in the U.S. Senate race, 40% to 39%, but the Republican is dominating the Democrat by 9 points among those nearing or at retirement age — a group that casts the majority of Florida’s votes.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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