If you watched any of the Sunday morning television public affairs programs yesterday, you no doubt saw at some point a television ad featuring the newest entrant to the Republican primary race for governor, Rick Scott. The controversial former head of Columbia/HCA Health care has dropped a quick $4.7 million into the race in the last few weeks to buy ads on television and the Internet (including on CL's site).
And it's apparently paying off, at least in early May. A Mason-Dixon poll released on Saturday shows Scott trailing longtime GOP gubernatorial front-runner Bill McCollum by only 14%, with the Attorney General at 38%, and Scott with 24%.
One should hesitate about making any grand pronouncements from one survey, but you can believe this wasn't received warmly within the McCollum camp, or inside the top of the RPOF.
This article appears in May 5-11, 2010.