A new Mason-Dixon poll released Thursday is bad news for Rick Scott.
The health care exec, who has led in most polls against Bill McCollum in the race for the GOP nomination since entering the race several months ago, is now down in the MD survey, 34%-30% to McCollum.
For the sake of the GOP, who still have thoughts of maintaining their grip on the capitol, which has been Republican terra firm since 1998, they better hope McCollum staves off Scott. That's because if it's a Scott/Alex Sink match up according to the poll, it's lights out. Sink leads Scott 40%-24%. It's a virtual tie if it's McCollum, with Sink up modestly , 37%-35%.
Nevertheless, for being just a "snapshot in time," it's a particular joyous one for the CFO, who has never led in such surveys, at least not ones conducted by Mason Dixon. One might expect to hear this line from McCollum and his legion of supporters in the state Republican ranks -that he's the only viable candidate in November.
Then again, who knows what McCollum might do to screw up his momentum. On Monday an interview in which he advocates banning gays from being foster parents made news when it was published, and on Wednesday he boasted about a new illegal immigration bill that he says will be the envy of Arizona. Good politics if you're desperate and are depending on the far right to pull yourself out of the fire, but questionable otherwise. In fact, Wednesday night on Fox, classic conservative Charles Krauthammer blasted McCollum on his gambit:
Krauthammer: “I think the fact that it was announced today is pure opportunism. This is a candidate who is down by 10, his opponent had supported the Arizona law – he had equivocated. So now he wants to trump the opponent with a few weeks to go in the primary. It’s probably a safe bet on the Republican side…It looks like a Hail Mary he’s throwing with a few weeks to go. I’m not sure I would take it that seriously.”
This article appears in Aug 12-18, 2010.