When reporting the results of the latest Florida Quinnipiac poll yesterday, we mused about how the Bill McCollum/Rick Scott battle for the GOP nomination for governor was faring, since that comparison was not included.

Well, the results are now in on that race, and they are stunning.

Today’s Quinnipiac poll has former hospital executive Rick Scott now has a 13% point lead over McCollum, 44-31%.

And in the Democratic Senate race, Jeff Greene is now in a statistical dead heat with Kendrick Meek, with the Miami Congressman at 29%, and Greene at 27%.

What must give Bill McCollum some succor in his race against Rick Scott is that only 12% have an unfavorable view of Scott, while 40% say they don’t know enough about him.  Trust us, Bill McCollum will forget about Alex Sink in the next couple of months (except when he may be quoting her disparaging Scott, as he did recently)  and putting full attention on the former Columbia/HCA executive.

Rick Scott is a gift to Sink – for now.  She can let those boys fight it out while she stands tall as she has in recent weeks in being sharp and insightful in holding BP to account and trying to help those in the Florida economy already being hurt by the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

As the Times’ Adam Smith has written, Rick Scott has a ton of baggage (Adam’s line is “more luggage than Samsonite”).  Seriously, we’ve documented some of it already, and Team McCollum has issued their “Scott Files” e-mail releases, but General McCollum needs to get those on the air, immediately.

Quinnipiac’s Peter Brown says something that other Republicans have voiced in the past year:

“In addition to being a testament to the power of television, Scott’s ability to take the lead so quickly is also a reflection on McCollum’s lack of strong support within his own party despite his two decades in Florida politics,” said Brown.

No question that the issue of illegal immigration is aiding Scott in his current surge.  Right now Scott is airing ads showing McCollum  saying (in Tampa, incidentally) that he does not believe that Florida needs to ape Arizona with a similar law . The ad does not show McCollum  saying that he supports it (which he does), just that he doesn’t think Florida needs it.

The Quinnipiac survey finds that on the question of illegal immigration,  being for the Arizona law is a political winner, finding that by a 54-34% margin Floridians would like to see Arizona’s law implemented here (the poll shows a stark divide amongst the political parties:  Republicans favor the law in the Sunshine State by a 84%-10% margin, while Democrats oppose on a 56%-26% margin).

This article appears in Jun 10-16, 2010.