The Democratic Party up and down Florida has been pushing its voters to get to the polls during early voting, so perhaps it's not that big a surprise that a new survey shows that Pinellas County Democrats Janet Long and Charlie Justice have five point leads against their Republican opponents Neil Brickfield and Nancy Bostock, respectively, in a count of early voters in two big county commission races.
St. Pete Polls new survey shows Long leading Neil Brickfield in the District 1 contest by a solid 50-45 percent margin. Likewise, the survey shows Charlie Justice leading by roughly the same margin, 50-45 percent.
However, among "likely voters," the races are virtually dead even.
In the HD-68 race, a bitter contest between Republican Frank Farkas and Democrat Dwight Dudley, Dudley had a strong lead among likely voters at 46-38 percent. However the early vote shows the two virtually tied.
In HD-65, Republican Peter Nehr has a narrow two point edge over Democrat Carl Zimmerman, 46-44, with Nehr up by a single point in early voting.