Gov. Rick Scott would be in serious trouble if an election were to take place today.
According to the latest Quinnipiac poll, his approval ratings remain in the cellar and 52 percent of Florida voters think he does not deserve a second term.
Republicans are the big asterisk in the survey of 1,261 voters taken last week. Sixty-three percent of GOP voters approve of the governor's performance and 55 say he deserves another term although 53 percent are hoping another Republican candidate replaces him in the 2014 election.
According to the Florida News Service, the poll, with its 2.8 percent margin of error, finds the Republicans with few choices.
The only other Republican the pollsters tested was Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, thought by many to be a likely candidate for governor in the future. But 80 percent of voters don’t have an opinion currently about Putnam, a longtime former Congressman and former state legislator. Scott, who has struggled with negative approval ratings since being elected in 2010, plans to seek re-election next year. The only declared candidate challenging him is Democratic former state Sen. Nan Rich. Former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, who is now a Democrat, is considering a run, and Democrat Alex Sink, who narrowly lost to Scott in 2010, is thought to be mulling a rematch.
Poll respondents did give Scott the highest marks of his term for his policies, even though 52 percent disapproved of them. Scott has been promoting his record of creating jobs but the survey found 27 percent of voters giving the Obama Administration much of the credit for the improving employment picture, with only 16 percent crediting Gov. Scott.
And then, of course, there is Charlie Crist, Florida's governor from 2007 through 2011. Once a Republican, then an independent and now a Democrat, Crist has a 47 percent approval rating, according to Quinnipiac.
