Hype-doubting Dem pollster: Alex Sink (31%) and Charlie Crist (29%) are likely tied in '14 gov. race

A new poll showing former Republican governor Charlie Crist utterly destroying former state CFO Alex Sink, a Democrat, in the 2014 Democratic primary is at best an outlier.

That's according to a cursory glance of the results from a nearly unknown polling outfit that hails from Crist's hometown, St. Petersburg, and other surveys concerning Crist that have far different results.

Bottom line, the basic methodology of the survey released yesterday from St. Pete Polls has a major oddity: It has no undecided voters in a theoretical race two years away while everyone's focused on the current presidential and (to a lesser degree) Senate races. With zero undecided votes, the poll showed Crist earning a whopping 61 percent of the vote in a Democratic primary with Sink earning just 25 percent. A handful of lesser-known candidates, including only-announced candidate Nan Rich, were in the single digits.

Undecideds: 0

"There's no one undecided? Well, we've now made history: two years before an election before nearly all the candidates have really declared, everyone knows who they'll vote for," said Tom Eldon, pollster SEA Polling & Strategic Design, who has surveyed for Democrats and trial lawyers since 1996 in Florida. Along with a Republican-leaning pollster, Eldon used to conduct surveys for The Miami Herald.

Eldon was hired last month by the Democratic firm EDGE Communications to survey 600 registered Democrats to gauge their interest in the race. It found Crist and Sink basically tied, with Sink earning 31 percent and Crist 29 percent of the vote. A handful of other candidates were in the double digits. Undecided: 26 percent.

That's still great news for Crist (who's still an independent after leaving the GOP) and not-so-good news for longtime-Democrat Sink, whose 2010 loss to GOP Gov. Rick Scott rankles some Democrats to the core so much that the party is willing to seriously consider a former Republican as their nominee.

Movers & Shakers: Gov. Scott's new communications director begins, FL DOT analyst joins FMA

Gov. Rick Scott’s new communications director begins

Melissa Sellers today replaces Gov. Rick Scott communications director Brian Burgess, who will begin as Republican Party of Florida’s chief spokesman on Sept. 17.

Most recently, Sellers was the regional media director for the Republican National Convention in Tampa. Previous to that, she was spokesperson for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, where she handled media related to the BP oil spill and Hurricane Gustav.

The Capitol Press Corps knows little about Sellers, but a 2009 Esquire article describes her as "a solid woman in high heels, quick on the draw with both her smile and middle finger."

Prosecutors push back arraignment for Hialeah ballot broker

Prosecutors will wait to file formal charges against Sergio Robaina, the Hialeah absentee ballot broker accused of voter fraud.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, on Monday, asked Circuit Judge Milton Hirsch for an additional few weeks as detectives continue their investigation. Robaina, 74, will now be arraigned on Oct. 1.

Robaina, the uncle of former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina, is facing two felony counts of voter fraud for allegedly filling out two ballots in a way that did not match the intentions of the voters.

He also faces two counts of violating a county ordinance by possessing more than two absentee ballots belonging to others.

His arrest last month came as part of a larger probe by Miami-Dade police into absentee ballot fraud. Earlier, another ballot broker, Deisy Cabrera, was also arrested after detectives caught her with a slew of absentee ballots; she is accused of filling out a ballot for an elderly, incapacitated woman.

Detectives were led to Robaina after a bundle of 164 absentee ballots were discovered in a North Miami-Dade post office, delivered by a then-aide to Miami-Dade Commissioner Esteban Bovo.

That aide, Anamary Pedrosa, told police that Robaina had asked her to deliver the envelopes to the police office.

Last week, Robaina told El Nuevo Herald that Pedrosa was the one who approached him seeking help to collect ballots. He claimed that she told him she was helping with the campaigns of Manny Díaz Jr., José Oliva, and Eddy González, who won their respective bids for the Florida House of Representatives in the Aug. 14 primary elections.

--DAVID OVALLE

Hialeah ballot brokers say Miami-Dade commissioner's aide did office favors for them

Anamary Pedrosa doled out constituent services to Hialeah’s ballot brokers from county Commissioner Esteban Bovo’s district office for months. Then, when the Aug. 14 elections approached, they say she asked them for a favor of her own: to collect absentee ballots for three candidates running for the state Legislature.

“She wanted me to help with the campaigns of Manny Díaz Jr., Eddy González and [José] Oliva”, said Claribel “Beba” Ferrer, who first entered Bovo’s Hialeah office in March to ask for help notarizing a document.

For more than a decade, Ferrer, 71, has collected absentee ballots from friends and acquaintances who follow her advice in choosing candidates. She said she never planned to get involved in any campaigns this year, but agreed to help the 25-year-old Pedrosa.

“I felt bad because she had helped me and I didn’t want to say no,” said Ferrer, who turned over a half dozen ballots to Pedrosa.

Ferrer is the second ballot broker, or boletera, to say Pedrosa sought their services in support of Díaz, González and Oliva. Bovo also supported these candidates.

Email records, interviews with boleteros and other documents show how Pedrosa ingratiated herself to multiple ballot brokers who operate in Hialeah. She filled out forms seeking government financial assistance, read and translated letters and even snagged invitations for a few to a special dinner for the Republican Party of Miami-Dade County.

More from Melissa Sanchez and Enrique Flor here.

WUSF Public Media acquires Health News Florida

WUSF Public Media has acquired Health News Florida, reporter Carol Gentry's hard-hitting non-profit health news website. 

The public radio station, broadcast by the University of South Florida, will air Health News Florida content from reporters Sarah Pusateri, Sammy Mack and from Gentry herself. Editorial assistant Lottie Watts is also a new USF employee.

"Health News Florida is dissolving as a corporation as of today," Gentry said, during a quick break from first-day orientation.

Gov. Rick Scott mum on Charlie Crist

Gov. Rick Scott won't say whether he's concerned about a possible 2014 challenge by former Gov. Charlie Crist.

"Isn't that a hypothetical?" he asked, in response to a reporter. "My job is to be the best governor I can on the three things citizens care about. They want to make sure their child can get a good education so they can live the American dream, they want to be able to get a job so they can raise a family, and they don't want the government to make the cost of living go up."

The former Republican governor endorsed President Barack Obama in The Tampa Bay Times and praised the president in a prime time speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention, escalating rumors Crist is positioning himself to run as a Democrat against Scott.

Crist hasn't announced any candidacy, but the Republican Party of Florida launched a website and television ads criticizing Crist.

@Britt_alana 

Gov. Scott casually mentions precancerous cells on forehead

Gov. Rick Scott has tiny skin-toned bandages on his forehead.

Asked what they were, he told the press he had some pre-cancerous cells.

"There was some bruising," he said, casually. "The story was I won a fight."

Gov's 'listening tour' of parents and teachers to be closed events

Gov. Rick Scott embarks on his "listening tour" of parents and teachers today at Pinedale Elementary in Jacksonville this afternoon and, while film crews are encouraged, the event is invitation only and will be closed.

"We want everybody in that meeting to express whatever ideas or concerns that they have,'' said Lane Wright, Scott's spokesman. People are relucatant to do that "with cameras rolling," he said.

The media will be allowed to talk to the governor after the event and will not be barred from interviewing parents and teachers "after the event,'' Wright said. Students from each of the schools will be invited to shoot the event as well but will also be "escorted out,'' he said, "because it is a closed event."

Scott is scheduled to be at Boca Raton High School on Tuesday for the second day of his tour and in the Orlando area on Thursday where he will attend the Ocoee Middle School and Fern Creek Elementary School, the school that as the highest number of homeless students in the state.