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Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Cheer Up, The Election Is Almost Over
November 2, 2014
A chill descended upon Florida this weekend that is not tied to the campaign season.
But rather than dwell on the weather or Halloween mischief, the time is finally approaching for many in the Sunshine State to celebrate a long-deserved, early Thanksgiving.
There are justday go in the 2014 general election — barring any statewide recount — and we will know which of the unpopular gubernatorial candidates, Republican Gov. Rick Scott or former Gov. Charlie Crist, the Democratic convert, will lead Florida for the next four years.
Questions will also be answered this week about how big of a majority the Republicans maintain in the Legislature and in the state’s congressional delegation.
There is less suspense about the outcome of three Cabinet races.
The good news is that for the next few months email inboxes and Twitter chatter won’t be as stuffed on a daily basis with shrill missives from countless campaign spokespeople and candidates. Also, TV and online commercials will return to more honest pitches for criminal defense lawyers, automobile dealers and pharmaceuticals.
More important, state workers and lobbyists will be able to turn their attention to preparing bills that could wind up stuck in committees during the 2015 legislative session.
But first, the week in review:
THE ELECTION HOME STRETCH
As the election approaches, campaigning has dominated the news cycle. This week, more so.
OK, there was the excitement of a World Series Game 7 and the Louisville-Florida State University football game, which included halves that could be enjoyed by both Seminole haters and Seminole fans.
But those were interludes.
Former President Bill Clinton and singer Jimmy Buffett both made stops in Tallahassee for Democratic congressional hopeful Gwen Graham. Clinton is due to return Monday for Crist in Orlando.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie continued to fit time into his unofficial presidential aspirations to appear alongside Scott on a campaign swing. Christie is planning another South Florida trip Saturday, this time to Naples, with Scott.
Meanwhile, an ad in the bitter congressional contest between Democratic freshman U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia and Republican Carlos Curbelo, a Miami-Dade County School Board member, increased what was already a muddy contest.
Garcia ran a Spanish-language spot that featured a prominent Cuban dissident. The ad broke a supposed unwritten rule of South Florida politics against using opponents of the Castro regime for political gain, according to the Miami Herald.
And possibly setting the stage for runs at higher offices, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, both with plenty of money to burn and little opposition, got tastes of the state in separate campaign bus tours .
Putnam noted on Twitter that his tour stopped this week for coffee at Palmano’s in Winter Park, lunch at 4 Rivers Smokehouse in Winter Gardens, and that his “guava pastry tour” detoured to Melao Bakery in Kissimmee.
Atwater’s tweets have noted a stop at the Swamp Restaurant in Gainesville, a pizza party in Marion County, coffee and donuts in Pinellas County, ice cream with Attorney General Pam Bondi in Naples, and dropping off “my infamous Atwater cookies” for campaign workers in Sarasota County.
All three Cabinet members have also been putting in face time at Scott’s campaign stops.
HOW MANY WAYS CAN YOU SAY TOO CLOSE TO CALL?
Both Crist and Scott spent the week rushing across the state trying to drum up their bases to boost turnout.
And they need to.
The most-expensive contest in state history — and also one of the most negative — remains too close to call.
On Thursday, the latest polling showed that despite numerous attack ads and Scott’s debate-fan moment, nothing has really changed in the projections since this summer when the contest moved to a dead heat.
Crist has the support of 43 percent of likely voters, while Scott has 40 percent and Libertarian candidate Adrian Wyllie is at 8 percent, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll.
Crist was up 14 points over Scott among women. Scott had a 10-point lead among men. In a potential outlier, or sign of the impact of the recent debates, independent voters now favor Crist by a margin of 47 percent to 29 percent over Scott, the Quinnipiac poll said. Wyllie was getting 16 percent. A week earlier, Crist was ahead of Scott among independents 41 percent to 38 percent.
Meanwhile, a University of Florida poll conducted for the Tampa Bay Times, Bay News 9 and News 13 of Orlando found the contest knotted at 36 percent for both Crist and Scott, while Wyllie was drawing 6 percent.
Since June, the average margin in polling has been less than 1 percentage point, with Crist up, when the major party candidates have been matched head-to-head in polls conducted by the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Survey USA, Gravis Marketing, Quinnipiac, Rasmussen Reports, and the New York Times/CBS News, according to Ballotpedia.
With Wyllie added to the mix, polls during the same period are equally knotted, the average tipping by less than 1 percentage point to favor Scott, with Wyllie on a course for just under 7 percent of the vote.
STORY OF THE WEEK: The end is in sight for the governor’s race.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “A lot fewer people say that they’re interested in voting, because they feel like they can’t find out who’s telling the truth, there’s no one really talking about what would make these casual voters’ lives better. …” — University of South Florida political-science professor Susan MacManus.
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
Comments
3 Responses to “Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Cheer Up, The Election Is Almost Over”
COMMON CORE is a key issue here in Florida, as our next generation of school children are at risk with Charlie Christ because he totally supports COMMON CORE. As for Rick Scott well he changed the testing somewhat and did change the name from COMMON CORE STANDARDS to Florida Testing Standards, although he did zero to change the unAmerican Curriculum, so we don’t vote for Scott because he spent more on Education to train Teachers and implement the COMMON CORE into our Florida School Systems. The BEST Candidate for Florida Governor is Adrian Wyllie because he is totally against any and all of COMMON CORE and will totally eliminate COMMON CORE in our Florida School System. On this one issue facing Florida, Adrian Wyllie has my vote!
Even the parrot-head has enough sense to vote for Charlie Crist! It’s a no-brainer. Vote for the party that helps the people. That is what government is suppose to do : help the people.
Good for Floridians….