As you've no doubt read, poll results from early Wednesday show Charlie Crist leading his potential Democratic primary opponents in the Congressional District 13 race by nearly 70 points.
The poll was carried out via St. Pete Polls and commissioned by Florida Politics (neé SaintPetersBlog). And, damn, does it look promising for Crist fans.
One might be lulled into thinking numbers seeming to favor His Tan-ness over State Rep. Dwight Dudley, St. Pete City Councilwoman Darden Rice and newcomer Eric Lynn make the former governor an obvious shoo-in for the CD 13 seat in the wake of 1) the likely de-gerrymandering of the district to add south Pinellas County Democrats and subtract north Pinellas Republicans, and 2) relatively popular incumbent Congressman David Jolly's launching of his campaign for the U.S. Senate seat Marco Rubio is vacating to run for president.
But middle school algebra has taught us we can't solve an equation without all factors present.
Enter former St. Pete mayor Rick Baker, the mustachioed, eight-foot-tall bringer-together of people who is also a Republican. He's "examining" a run for the same seat and media coverage of said contemplation is of the will-he-won't-he variety at the moment.
Baker was a mayor who was able to appeal to Republicans and Democrats alike, and was viewed quite favorably among south St. Pete's predominantly African-American residents.
As a resident of the district, this reporter was among those telephoned at random for Tuesday's survey. Notably, what's missing from its public results was the first question asked, which was whether the respondent would vote for Baker or Crist if a general election were held right now.
Florida Politics editor and publisher Peter Schorsch said in an email the results of that question may or not make it out into the public sphere, depending on various factors.
But he did tell us that the results of Baker vs. Crist were "close," the specifics of which mean a hell of a lot more to us than by how much Crist can clobber his lesser known primary opponents.
