RICK SCOTT’S SUPPORT COLLAPSES IN FLORIDA…. Go figure. A bizarre criminal gets elected governor of Florida, deliberately turns his back on job creation, slashes funding for popular and necessary programs, unveils a plan to “reform” Medicaid that would line his own pockets, and all of a sudden, voters start to feel buyers’ remorse.
You could say Rick Scott’s honeymoon is over … but that would suggest he had one in the first place. A December PPP poll shortly before Scott took office found that only 33% of Florida voters had a favorable opinion of their new Governor to 43% who viewed him negatively. After a few months in office those numbers have only gotten worse — Scott’s approval rating is just 32% while 55% of voters in the state are unhappy with his work so far. […]
Outside of his own party Scott’s support is close to nonexistent. […]
The Florida Governor’s race was one of the closest in the country last year with Scott winning by a razor thin margin even in one of the best Republican years ever. If voters got to do it over again today it would be no contest — Alex Sink leads Scott 56-37 in a hypothetical rematch.
Before Republicans complain that perhaps the poll leaned Democratic, it’s worth noting that this same poll shows Sen. Marco Rubio (R) as the state’s most popular politician, and most of the poll’s participants said they voted for John McCain in 2008, not Barack Obama.
Scott, in other words, really has seen his support deteriorate to remarkable depths in just a couple of months.
Floridians, don’t say you weren’t warned. The guy you voted for had one notable accomplishment in his professional life: defrauding taxpayers, getting fired, and narrowly avoiding a criminal indictment. Now he’s proving to be a terrible governor, but you really should have seen this coming.
And in the larger context, Scott is part of a new crop of far-right Republican governors, taking the helm in large swing states, and quickly annoying their own constituents. In Michigan, Gov. Rick Snyder (R) has seen his approval rating fall off a cliff, and if voters had it to do over again, they wish they’d elected the Dem.
In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich (R) has seen his support plummet in recent months, a trend bolstered by the latest Quinnipiac poll showing his approval rating down to just 30%.
In Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Corbett (R) — the one who’s desperate to make brutal cuts to education, while increasing spending on prisons — hasn’t exactly impressed his constituents, either. Last week, a statewide poll found only 31% of Pennsylvanians had a positive impression of his job performance.
Polls in Wisconsin have shown widespread opposition to Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) agenda, and if voters had it to do over again, they wish they’d voted for former Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D), who lost to Walker by six points in November.
Will this prove relevant in 2012? Time will tell, of course, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it does. Republicans scored big wins in 2010, not because the GOP was popular, but because much of the public was dissatisfied with the status quo, and Dems happened to be the dominant majority.
But now those same voters have been reminded exactly why they didn’t like Republicans in the first place.
