Gov. Rick Scott's approval rating was polled as the highest of his governorship at 37 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released this morning.
The increase is due to a higher opinion of Scott's job performance from members of the Republican Party, as both Democrats and Independents disapproved of the governor at a higher rate than in previous months.
The poll shows 70 percent of Republicans approve of his job performance -- with just 18 percent disapproving -- compared to having 61-to-23 percent approval/disapproval from Republicans just a month ago.
On the other hand, 82 percent of Democrats disapprove of Scott's job performance, while 8 percent approve, compared to 78 percent opposed and 14 percent approving in August.
Independents gave the governor 54 percent thumbs-down and 34 percent thumbs-up, from 50 percent approval and 33 percent disapproval in August.
"Gov. Scott certainly has a long way to go till he can see the breakeven point, but his ratings that dropped to awful are now just bad," says Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "It is reasonable to assume that his improvement is an endorsement of his new outreach strategy."
When poll respondents where asked how they liked the governor as a person, the pollsters found that women had gained a much more positive view of Scott.
"Women split 36 - 36 percent on liking Scott, compared to a 47 - 30 percent dislike
August 5. Men also split, 39 - 38 percent, virtually unchanged from 39 - 42 percent last month," Quinnipiac says.
Brown says the increase is likely due to the governor's public-relations campaign -- which he's spent loads of money on in an attempt to make him more popular.
"Gov. Rick Scott has been trying to put on a charm offensive -- both in changing how he
deals with the news media and spending more time meeting ordinary Floridians from around the
state. It appears to be working, at least a little," Brown says.
In other questions of the survey, the pollsters say 71 percent of Floridians support drug testing welfare recipients, and 49 percent of respondents gave a favorable rating of Sen. Marco Rubio, compared to 31 percent disapproving.
Check out Talking Points Memo's PollTracker of Scott's approval rating, which will likely be updated with the new numbers at some point today:
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