Mitch Perry
Debbie Wasserman Schultz leads her Democratic challenger Tim Canova by eight percentage points in Florida’s 23rd Congressional District, 46 percent to 38 percent, according to a new poll released Sunday by the Canova campaign. What’s more, after the pollsters provided more information about Canova to likely voters, Wasserman Schultz’ lead was reduced to just three points, 43 percent to 40 percent.
The survey, conducted by the Los Angeles-based polling group of Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates (FM3), was in the field immediately after Wasserman Schultz stepped down as head of the Democratic National Committee last week. Her resignation was spurred by the release of 19,000 leaked emails from Wikileaks, which showed top members of the DNC working to boost Hillary Clinton‘s presidential bid.
The poll also shows 52 percent of voters in CD 23 view Wasserman Schultz favorably, with 35 percent regarding her unfavorably, “a staggering decline from her popularity in past campaigns,” the pollsters write.
Wasserman Schultz has represented her Miami Dade/Broward County district since 2004, and been comfortably re-elected without serious opposition. Canova came on the scene back in January, and his campaign has served as a vessel of sorts for thousands of Democrats around the nation unhappy with Wasserman Schultz’ performance at the DNC, perceiving her as an unfair arbiter when Bernie Sanders and Clinton battled it out for the presidential nomination.
Canova has based his campaign on depicting Wasserman Schultz as having abandoned the progressive wing of the party. He’s raised more than $2 million, including more than $125,000 last week in the immediate aftermath of Wasserman Schultz’ resignation from the DNC. He’s also been endorsed by Sanders, who has said he will campaign in the district for Canova.
Despite the negative focus on Wasserman Schultz, however, many political observers in South Florida believe she’s still a good bet for re-election. She’s raised more money than Canova overall in the race, and continues to have more cash-on-hand. With the exception of this survey, there has been very little public polling on the race.
Canova says he intends to filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against the DNC, contending Wasserman Schultz used party resources to monitor his campaign and develop strategy on how to respond to it. “The use of party resources for her personal campaign seems (to) be a violation of federal law and we are preparing a complaint to the FEC,” Canova told Larry King last week.
The poll of 400 randomly selected voters in Florida’s 23rd Congressional District likely to cast a ballot in the Aug. 30 Democratic primary was conducted on July 27 and July 28 on both landline and cell phones. The margin of sampling error is +/-4.9 percent at the 95 percent confidence level.
10 comments
Peggy Liddy
July 31, 2016 at 1:44 pm
only an idiot would vote for DWS
Kim
July 31, 2016 at 3:59 pm
Endorsed not endured
James Nickoloff
July 31, 2016 at 5:38 pm
I am happy to get the information in this story, but how many typos and grammatical errors does a reader have to put up with? Please proof-read more carefully, out of respect for the reader and for the language.
Shana July
August 1, 2016 at 6:15 pm
The disgrace is Democrats who allowed an Independent to run in our Party as a fake Democrat. Now, Bernie Sanders , who remains an Independent, despite getting most of the platform shifted to his ideas. Bernie Sanders will not gain control of the Democratic Party without being one and any of his candidates will not get MY vote. Tim Canova is a Bernie Sanders Democrat who Bernie Sanders is counting on to pull the Party in his direction. Bernie Sanders the Independent is the only person who called for OUR DEMOCRATIC sitting President who won the vote with 50+ percent the first time and went on to do it a SECOND TIME with no help from Bernie Sanders. President Obama is the only President since 1956 to win two times with 51% of the vote. Tim Canova is a plant for Bernie Sanders. A vote for him is a vote to turn the Democratic Party to Bernie Sanders and I will NEVER do that.
Mark
August 2, 2016 at 4:08 am
Idiot…
Monica
August 9, 2016 at 9:21 pm
I totally agree with you. Hillary adopted most of Bernie’s policies, which will make it very hard to govern for Hillary. Socialism has failed and we need sensible policies to succeed. Increasing minimum wage to $15 and raising taxes on businesses will not create jobs.
Monica
August 9, 2016 at 9:16 pm
We live in Broward county and are being bombarded with Tim Canova ads attacking Debbie. I have yet to see a single ad by Debbie. Tim is well funded by outside support by Bernie’s people.
larry
August 12, 2016 at 9:34 am
Excellent!I love how people try to box candidates going “Sanders supports him therefore I wont support him”.How about compare their policy positions and see which one you agree with most.
Rhonda Laffey
August 14, 2016 at 12:48 pm
DWS has been spending all her money on massive mailings…We’ve been getting at least two or three daily for a month now. Tim has filed a complaint over her abuse of power as DNC head to benefit her own campaign; she was caught red-handed when the e-mails were leaked, yet she refuses to publicly talk about it.
Rhonda Laffey
August 14, 2016 at 12:40 pm
I live in FL-23, and actually worked as a volunteer for DWS her last two campaigns, but am now a solid Tim Canova supporter. What many who don’t actually live in her district might not know is that the district is heavily Jewish, so Tim has a tough task trying to unseat DWS…he certainly has my vote.
Comments are closed.