@adamsmithtimes
CORRECTION: We blew this report. John Morgan was not actually on board with the marijuana initiative at the time of this poll and says he never saw the polling memo. Ben Pollara, executive director of United For Care, commissioned the poll "well before it was even on John’s radar."
Morgan emails: "If I wanted to help him (Crist) I would have given him $4 million and told him to run on that platform."
Here's the memo:
February 14, 2013
Impact on 2014 Florida Governor’s Race
A ballot initiative legalizing marijuana for medical purposes has the potential to be a contentious issue in the 2014
Governor’s race, and could prove to be a dividing line between the opposing Democratic and Republican candidates. Demographic groups that show support of the ballot initiative’s passage include white female voters, African American voters and English-speaking Hispanic voters. African American and particularly English-speaking Hispanic voters are less certain to vote in 2014, and the issue of legalized medical marijuana could be used to increase turnout among these voters who are also more likely to cast their ballot for the Democratic candidate.
In all three of the hypothetical gubernatorial match ups tested, more than six-in-ten African American and four-in-ten Hispanic voters expressed a preference for the Democratic candidate (with the Democrat leading the Republican among Hispanics in each case). In addition, white women were more likely to support the Democratic
candidate than white men in each of these hypothetical matchups by a wide, albeit, not a winning margin. Registered voters who say they will vote “Yes” for the proposed ballot initiative support Democratic candidates by +8 to +15 percentage points, while those who indicate they will vote “No” support Governor Rick Scott by +44 to +57 percentage points.
Bottomline
Currently there is strong support beyond the 60% threshold necessary for passage of a proposed constitutional amendment that allow use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Supporters of the proposed amendment are less certain to cast ballots in the 2014 Governor’s race. White female voters, African American voters and English-
speaking Hispanic voters are all key targets for turnout in this regard, as they not only support the proposed ballot initiative, they tend to support Democratic candidates for Governor to a greater degree than white men. In addition,the proposal to allow the medical use of marijuana could provide a message contrast in the Governor’s race, heightening its effectiveness as a turnout mechanism.
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