Florida: Continued Bouncing

​The open Florida Governor’s nomination contest, which will finally be decided tomorrow, has been one of the most interesting campaigns during the current election cycle.  In a Republican race that has bounced back and forth between Agriculture Commissioner and former Congressman Adam Putnam and Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Palm Coast/Daytona Beach) continues to do so until the very end.
 
Since August 13th, five polls have been released, one that shows Mr. Putnam leading (St. Leo University; 52-41%), and three that find Rep. DeSantis ahead by one (Florida Atlantic University), two (Survey USA), and twelve percentage points (Gravis Marketing).  Now, St. Pete Polls released the latest (8/22-23; 2,141 FL likely Republican primary voters) that finds DeSantis crushing Putnam, 56-33%, as the campaign draws to a close.
 
On the Democratic side, after cancelling his last week ad buy, billionaire Jeff Greene (D), who has spent $25 million of his own money on the Governor’s campaign, now says he will resume airing commercials today, the last day of the primary campaign.
 
Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum continues to draw major financial support from national liberal donors in the final days.  Billionaire Tom Steyer, whose organization, NextGen America, has already been backing Gillum with a seven-figure expenditure, and financier George Soros are combining to spend $550,000 in the final couple of days.  But, former Rep. Gwen Graham (D-Tallahassee) is receiving a similar independent expenditure on her behalf.  Her father, former Governor and Senator Bob Graham (D), is spending $500,000 on his own independent effort to support his daughter’s political quest.