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Poll shows economy dominating, improved ratings for Scott, Obama

Posted Aug 12, 2011 by William March

Updated Aug 12, 2011 at 05:24 PM

A poll from a Republican consulting firm shows the economy as the dominant issue for Florida voters, and improved favorability ratings for both President Barack Obama and Gov. Rick Scott.

Obama got favorable ratings from 53 percent of respondents, unfavorable from 45 percent and 1 percent “don’t know” answers in the poll by Alex Patton of the Gainesville-based War Room Logistics consulting firm.

Concerning Scott, the poll nearly duplicated other recent polls showing an improvement in his unimpressive approval ratings—38 percent approval and 58 percent disapproval.

Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson showed better approval ratings in the poll than than Sen. Marco Rubio, who has become phenomenally popular within his own party. Nelson registered 51 percent approval and 36 percent disapproval, while Rubio got a 48-42 percent split.

Patton said the good showings for the Democrats could be in part because the poll sought responses from any registered voters, with no questions used to screen for likely voters. Democrats usually fare somewhat better in registered voter polls than in likely voter polls, he said.

On issues, the economy was by far the dominant concern of the respondents—improving the state’s economy, cutting government spending and avoiding tax increases registered first, second and third respectively when voters were asked to rank issues.

The firm’s polls use automated dial or “robopoll” interviewing. This one included 1,477 registered voters contacted Aug. 8, with an error margin of 3 percentage points.