New Yorkers Score Well Again In Florida Presidential Preference Poll

Sen. Hillary Clinton and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani are atop their respective parties in a Florida presidential preference poll released today by Strategic Vision.

Among Florida Democrats, Clinton is the top vote-getter at 35%. Al Gore is a distant second at 18% and John Edwards is at 12%. No other Democrat scores in double figures.

On the Repubican side, no matter how you mix and match the candidates (with Jeb Bush in the race, without Bush out of the race, with Condoleezza Rice in the race etc....) Giuliani tops the Republican list, leading the No.2 finisher in all the various combinations, Arizona Sen. John McCain. The poll shows Giuliani ahead of McCain by about 10 points.

The poll, which is mostly of local interest in Florida, paints Gov. Jeb Bush in an interesting light. His big brother's approval rating is at 38% (53% approve) in the state, but the governor's approval rating is at 56% (32% disapprove), pretty much a mirror image of the president's. However, when asked whether Jeb should run for president in 2008, by a margin of 67% to 13% Floridians say no. Likewise, they are cool to the idea of Bush the younger running for vice-president.

By the way, 56% of Floridians say they would not like to see the Supreme Court overturn Roe v Wade, while 34% would like to see the ruling which upholds abortion rights reversed.

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Who's hot and who's not on the campaign trail? The Kansas City Star's Dave Helling and Steve Kraske have an interesting look at the question. It seems Hillary Clinton is NOT someone you want to be seen with in Missouri. At least, according to the article, that seems to be the opinion of Claire McCaskill, the Democratic challenger to Republican Sen. Jim Talent (who seems to have ducked a photo op with Dick Cheney earlier this year).

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The Abany Times-Union's blog Capitol Confidential reports tonight that Rep. John Sweeney, the Republican representative from New York's 20'th District, may be considering dropping out of his re-election race due to health and family issues. Sweeney also was named in a recent story in the Capitol Hill publication 'Roll Call' which reported the Justice Department has examined Sweeney's personal financial records. The Roll Call report is available to subscribers only. Here's a report from the Post-Star in Glenns Falls.