Thanks to Matt Florell's St. Pete Polls, throughout the past year, political junkies haven't had to rely solely upon the Tampa Bay Times to find out what's cooking in Pinellas County political races.
Florell's last poll showed Kathleen Ford losing some of her early momentum in the race for St. Pete mayor, and the Times' new survey out today (conducted by Braun Research of New Jersey in association with WUSF radio and Bay News 9) reiterates that slippage, with Bill Foster showing a solid 10-point lead over Ford, 30-20 percent, and Rick Kriseman in third place with 17 percent.
The survey also shows a close battle with black voters: Ford is leading Foster 28-25 percent. Kriseman only has 8 percent of that vote.
That leads to the obvious inquiry: Could Kriseman's poor showing with black voters make him the odd man out when the race goes from three to two candidates after Aug. 27?