GOP Angling for Defeat in FL-Gov

For all of the talk about how bad the national environment is for the Democrats -- and it does appear to be bad -- this should not serve to paper over how bad a number of localized elections are for the Republicans. The Nevada Senate race, where the Republicans did everything they could to try to lose this race by nominating Sharron Angle, is a clear example. So is, apparently, the Florida Governor race:

Rick Scott's an unpopular candidate with a divided party and because of that Alex Sink begins the general election for Governor in Florida with a 7 point lead. Sink has 41% to 34% for Scott and 8% for Bud Chiles.

Sink is doing well because she has a higher degree of party unity than Scott does and because she's the favorite with independents. 72% of Democrats say they'll vote for Sink while only 57% of Republicans are committed to voting for Scott. Sink also has a 37-28 advantage with independents.

Scott has dreadful personal favorability numbers with 49% of voters holding an unfavorable opinion of him while only 28% see him favorably. His numbers are even worse with independents than they are with the population at large- a 54% majority of them see him in a negative light.

The one potential saving grace for the Republicans in this race is that a Democrat-turned-Independent is in the running who could siphon off Democratic votes. However, per Public Policy Polling, which conducted this survey, Indie Bud Chiles is actually drawing more Republican than Democratic votes at present, opening up the very real possibility that the Democratic nominee, Alex Sink, won't have to hit the 50 percent marker in order to win (indeed the 45 percent the Democrats' unheralded 2006 nominee received may be enough to win the Governor's mansion this fall).

And just how bad of a candidate is Republican Rick Scott (even if a well-funded one)? Marc Ambinder says pretty bad:

500,000 Florida Republicans chose as their gubernatorial nominee someone who the Democratic Party can easily label a "corrupt health care CEO" and not get sued for libel.

Lest you think that this isn't a race of national importance, because it is a state-level rather than federal race, remember two things: (1) The next Governor of Florida will be atop the state government during the 2012 Presidential election (assuming that he or she doesn't pull a Sarah Palin and quit early), and could impact the outcome of the race in the state; and (2) the next Governor will also be involved in redistricting a state now gerrymandered pretty well in favor of the Republicans (the GOP controls 60 percent of the state's U.S. House seats despite the fact that Florida has a fairly evenly balanced electorate). So were the Republicans to throw away this race, which it appears they may be doing, the implications would be felt far beyond the Sunshine state.