New PPP Has Sink in Lead

The new Public Policy Polling poll has Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink ahead of Rublican opponents Rick Scott and Bill McCollum. It is only one poll but Scott's and McCollum's bashing of each other is bring their negatives up.

Benefiting from her Republican candidates gashing the heck out of each other, Alex Sink has opened up an unlikely lead in the Florida Governor's race. She's up 36-30 on Rick Scott, with Bud Chiles getting 13% and 37-23 on Bill McCollum with Chiles getting 14%.

Scott and McCollum both have very poor favorability numbers. Their primary battle has completely turned off Democrats and independents, and Republicans aren't seeing them very positively either. 23% of voters have a favorable opinion of Scott while 41% view him unfavorably. While only 34% of Republicans view him positively, 40% of independents and 52% of Democrats see him unfavorably. McCollum's numbers are even worse. Only 16% have a favorable opinion of him with 51% holding a negative one. Just 27% of GOP voters see him favorably, while 59% of Democrats and 57% of independents have an unfavorable opinion of him.

Democrats worried that the pounding Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were dishing out to each other would help John McCain win the election. The flip side is McCollum and Scott are not nearly as strong candidates as Obama or Clinton. I also think Sink's response to the Deep Horizon spill has helped her in the poll. However, I have no way of proving that. The one thing I'm sure of is the winner of the Republican primary is going to engage in serious mudslinging against Sink. How Sink can stay above the fray and defend herself from attacks will be crucial.