New Polls Show Plenty of To-Close-To-Call Races In Florida As The Primaries Draw Near

The latest polls show that the major races in the state of Florida as we head toward the August 28th primaries are all very close. Add to that we have a United States Senate race that seems to change who is in the lead on a weekly basis.

Okay, let’s take a look at where things are in the Senate race with incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson who seeks to keep his seat in a race with his Republican challenger Gov. Rick Scott.

Two polls are out and they have differing results, we have the latest NBC News/Marist poll released late Tuesday with Sen. Nelson holding a lead over Gov. Scott, but then there is a new CBS/YouGov poll gave Scott a slight edge.

Breaking down the numbers we see the NBC poll gives Nelson a 49-to-45 percent lead over Scott among registered –not likely — voters in a survey with a 3.9 percent margin of error. CBS had Scott leading by a 46-to-41 percent margin among likely voters, but by only 2 points among registered voters. The CBS poll had a 3.5 percent margin of error.

So that means with about four months to go before the November election, one of the most expensive elections in the country remains too close to call. Something that Floridians are used to with a long history of last-minute slim victories for big races and both political party’s

Moving into the all-important primaries it looks very much like the race on the Republican side for governor could be a blowout. All polls show a big lead for Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam over his top challenger Congressman Ron DeSantis, who has the backing of President Donald Trump.

Inside the numbers, we see the NBC poll has Putnam with a 38-to-21 percent lead over Congressman DeSantis. The latest Fox News poll also gives Putman a big lead over DeSantis by a 32-to-17 percent margin.

Meanwhile, it looks like a very close two-person race on the Democratic side for the person who represents the party in the 2018 governor’s race. The crowded field of five is really just a very close race between Former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and Congresswoman Gwen Graham.

In that five-way race, it is Levine at 19 percent and Graham polling at 17 percent in a sample that has a 6.5 percent margin of error.

Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum (8 percent), billionaire Palm Beach real estate investor Jeff Greene (4 percent) and Winter Park businessman Chris King (3 percent) round out the Democratic field with 47 percent of voters undecided.

So, with just two months away from the August primary the key races seem to be a run-a-way on the GOP side while the Democrats are in an all-out war that won’t likely be decided until the last minute.

Jim Williams is the Washington Bureau Chief, Digital Director as well as the Director of Special Projects for Genesis Communications. He is starting his third year as part of the team. This is Williams 40th year in the media business, and in that time he has served in a number of capacities. He is a seven time Emmy Award winning television producer, director, writer and executive. He has developed four regional sports networks, directed over 2,000 live sporting events including basketball, football, baseball hockey, soccer and even polo to name a few sports. Major events include three Olympic Games, two World Cups, two World Series, six NBA Playoffs, four Stanley Cup Playoffs, four NCAA Men’s National Basketball Championship Tournaments (March Madness), two Super Bowl and over a dozen college bowl games. On the entertainment side Williams was involved s and directed over 500 concerts for Showtime, Pay Per View and MTV Networks.