It's not you, Charlie Crist: it's Rick Scott.
A new poll shows the incumbent Republican governor of Florida is struggling so much that Crist, who is viewed favorably by only 43 percent of respondents, still leads Scott by a 12 point margin (50-38) in hypothetical 2014 gubernatorial race.
Crist has yet to announce as expected that he'll run against Scott, and the Orlando Sentinel deemed the poll "laughably too early to mean jack."
But what it does show is that Scott's numbers remain roughly the same -- and very, very bad. Public Policy Polling noted in a release that he continues to be one of the most unpopular governors in the country, with a 33 percent approval and 55 percent disapproval rating.
In fact, the firm reports there are only five governors on whom it has conducted polls who've ever put up worse net approval ratings than Scott, who campaigned on job creation and whose first term has been mired in court fights against Obamacare and to drug test state workers and welfare recipients.
"His numbers have remained basically static over the course of this year and he'll need a big improvement over the next 13 months if he's going to get reelected," PPP president Dean Debnam said in a statement.
The poll bears more good news for Crist, who preceded Scott as a Republican governor of Florida, lost a subsequent senate race to Marco Rubio (R) as an independent, then switched parties in 2012 and campaigned for Barack Obama.
PPP results show he leads declared but lesser-known Democratic candidate Nan Rich 59-16 in a hypothetical matchup.
The Raleigh-based company says it surveyed 579 Florida voters between September 27 and 29; the poll's margin of error is 4.1 percent.
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