Rick Scott Bests Bill McCollum In Florida General Election Match-Ups for Governor

Former health care executive Rick Scott has not only overtaken state Attorney General Bill McCollum in the race for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in Florida, he is now the stronger candidate of the two against Democrat Alex Sink, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted August 2.

Scott leads Sink, the state's chief financial officer, by 35 percent to 31 percent with 16 percent for Lawton "Bud" Chiles, who is running as a third party candidate, 6 percent preferring to have another choice and 12 percent undecided.

But Sink leads McCollum, once regarded as the favorite in the governor's race, by 31 percent to 27 percent with 20 percent for Chiles, 8 percent for some other choice and 13 percent undecided. In May, McCollum had led Sink by 43 percent to 35 percent, but has no doubt suffered under the onslaught of the ad campaign being waged by the self-funded Scott in the primary contest.

The margin of error is 4 points.

A Quinnipiac poll in late July had showed Scott leading McCollum in the race for the GOP nod, which will be decided August 24, by 43 percent to 32 percent with 23 percent undecided. But the survey had put both Republican hopefuls in a statistical tie with Sink in general election match-ups.

McCollum is seen unfavorably by 54 percent and favorably by 35 percent with 11 percent not sure. Voters are divided at 48 percent each on whether they view Scott favorably or not, although the biggest number in that result is the 31 percent who see him "very" unfavorably.

Sink's problem is that 23 percent of voters still say they don't know enough about her to be sure of their opinion, and the same is true for 32 percent in the case of Chiles, despite the famous political name left to him by his Democratic father who served as governor and senator.

In a Sink-McCollum race, Chiles takes 19 percent of the Democrat vote and 13 percent of Republicans. In a Scott-Sink match-up, Chiles gets 12 percent support from voters of each party.

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