Florida Miscellany

-If Florida voters could redo the 2000 election for President it would...still be pretty close, although probably not close enough to cause the chaos it did then. Al Gore leads George W. Bush 48-45 in a hypothetical rematch. I have to think if we'd asked that question four years ago Gore would have been up by a considerably larger margin, and it speaks to the fact that feelings towards Bush have softened a little bit since he left office.

-Barack Obama, Bill Nelson, Marco Rubio, and Rick Scott all have sub 50% approval ratings in Florida but one person who does achieve a high level of popularity in the state is...Tim Tebow. 59% of Floridians have a positive opinion of him to only 16% with an unfavorable one. He's particularly strong with Republicans (71/10) but is seen well by independents (57/13) and Democrats (50/21). Maybe if he's flamed out as an NFL quarterback by 2014 he could take out Rick Scott in the primary. That might be on our next poll.

-It was a tough year for the Gators and it looks like some fans might be jumping off the bandwagon. In late June we found 30% of Florida fans saying they were Gators fans to 19% for Florida State. Now that gap has closed with 26% identifying as Florida fans to 21% for the Seminoles. Central Florida and Miami tie for 3rd at 11%, followed by South Florida at 8%, and Florida International and Florida Atlantic both at 3%.

The tough year for Florida football is reflected in first year coach Will Muschamp's approval numbers.  Only 24% of Gator fans think he's doing a good job to 28% who disapprove with 48% expressing no opinion, suggestive of a wait and see approach. Those numbers are pretty reminiscent of where Rich Rodriguez stood with Michigan fans last year, which is probably not where you want to be.

Florida fans give Urban Meyer a 42/26 favorability rating. We don't have any historic data to compare that to, but it seems safe to say it would have been a lot higher before he took the Ohio State job, although it still shows Gator fans aren't that mad at him.

Jimbo Fisher is in very good standing with his fan base- 60% of Seminoles fans approve of him with only 5% disapproving.

-Florida voters don't like either the Occupy Wall Street (35/39) or Tea Party (36/47) movements.

-Florida voters oppose expanding gambling in the state by a 47/38 margin.

-Florida voters are narrowly supportive of gay adoption, 45/43.

Full results here

Comments

[Not orton]

Gay adoption questions are very interesting. Governor Tebow, not so much imo

[Gerald]

Thank you for the excellent poll and in particular for taking my suggestion on the 2000 election do-over. This release is especially timely since today is Elian Gonzalez's 18th birthday, and the Gonzalez affair probably played some part in driving up Cuban-American turnout and thus causing the FL results to be so close.