Public Policy Polling decided to pick Florida's collective brain last week, and results released yesterday shed light on some very interesting trends. The most interesting: 26 percent of Floridians polled said George Zimmerman is innocent of the second-degree murder charges filed in the February killing of Trayvon Martin, but only 15 percent of people could admit to being fans of the Miami Marlins.
There also seems to be a political rift between fans of the Tampa Bay Rays and the Marlins: Among Floridians who voted for John McCain in 2008, 43 percent more of them support the Rays than the Marlins. If this is, like, really interesting to you, you'll probably get a kick out of a few of the other tidbits after the jump.
1. Nobody likes Ozzie Guillen. Especially conservatives.
Only 7 percent of Floridians reported having a "favorable" opinion of the Marlins skipper -- almost four times as many said they had an "unfavorable" opinion, and 67 percent of Floridians said they had no idea.
Again, there are splits along political lines: Guillen had a 15 percent favorable rating among those who identified themselves as "very liberal." His favorable rating among those who are "very conservative"? One percent.
2. Guillen's got a serious gender gap.
While 77 percent of women reported they "weren't sure" how they felt about Guillen, the ones who were sure totally didn't like the guy. The number of women who said they disliked Guillen was ten times higher than the number who liked him:
Among men -- 13 percent favorable, 31 percent unfavorable, 56 percent not sure.
Among women -- 2 percent favorable, 21 percent unfavorable, 77 percent unsure.
3. More Florida women favor convicting Zimmerman; Florida men prefer acquitting.
Thirty-nine percent of women said Zimmerman is guilty of second-degree murder, while only 23 percent of men said the same.
When it comes to acquittal, only 18 percent of women said they thought Zimmerman was innocent, compared to 34 percent of men.
4. White Floridians don't think the killing of Trayvon Martin was racially motivated.
Floridians who think the killing was not racially motivated, by race:
-- White: 51 percent
-- Hispanic: 36 percent
-- African-American: 11 percent
Here's the rest of the data, if you're curious. But good luck figuring out the logic behind the set of questions:
