Florida Voters Happy with Hurricane Irma Response, might give boost to Gov. Scott Senate hopes

Nearly two months since Hurricane Irma hit Florida, a new FAU BEPI survey finds Florida voters satisfied with the Government’s level of preparedness and general handling of Hurricane Irma.

When asked to rate the State’s preparedness, 68% said it was good to excellent with 7% reporting poor. Voters however had a slightly lower opinion of the clean-up with 56% reporting good to excellent and 17% reporting poor.

Voters thought Governor Scott had an impressive response with 73% rating him good to excellent and 8% reporting poor. On a separate question, 57% of voters think that Governor Scott response helped his U.S. Senate candidacy while 18% said it hurt him.

Overall, Governor Rick Scott has a 49% favorable and 39% unfavorable opinion, 11% undecided and 1% having never heard of him. His potential Senate opponent Senator Bill Nelson has a 45% favorable and 22% unfavorable opinion with 25% undecided and 8% having never heard of him.

Regarding the environment, 56% of voters said that climate change contributed to the recent hurricanes while 30% said it did not, 24% were unsure. Nearly 1 in 4 voters (24%) said they were not concerned at all with the environment while 39% said they were very concerned and 38% said somewhat concerned.

When pressed further on how they would rate the environmental issues as a priority for the President or Congress, 13% said it was a low priority, 45% said medium, 23% said high and 18% said very high priority.

Florida voters are also split regarding rising tides and potential floods with 37% saying the State is doing enough while 39% said they were not doing enough.

Former Vice-President Al Gore who has recently been holding environmental informational events around the country has a slight image issue in Florida with 37% having a favorable opinion of him but 41% reported an unfavorable opinion, 18% undecided and 4% have never heard of him.

The survey of registered voters in Florida finds President Trump’s job approval increased 4 points from 37% to 41% while his disapproval remained steady at 47%.

Trumps approval is based on regional support with his peak in the northern region of the state where he has a 44% to 43% approval, followed by the Central region with a 44% to 46% disapproval and his numbers drop to 41% to 50% in the southern region and in the most southern region, comprising of Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe, Trump has a 23% approval and 58% disapproval rating.

This poll was conducted using an online sample supplied by Survey Sampling International using an online questionnaires (n=250) and via an automated telephone platform (IVR) using registered voter lists supplied by Aristotle, Inc. (n=250). There were 500 respondents sampled between November 2-5, 2017 with a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 4.5 percentage points. Responses for the entire sample were weighted to reflect the statewide distribution of the Florida voting population by gender, 2016 return of the vote, party affiliation, ethnicity and educational attainment.