Obama slips in Florida in latest PPP survey

A new poll finds President Obama with a slim lead in Florida.

The latest survey from Public Policy Polling has seen Obama’s lead shrink over presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney from 4 percent to 1 percent since the last PPP poll in June; the two candidates now stand at 48 percent and 47 percent, respectively, in PPP’s first poll of likely voters in the Sunshine State.

It appears that Romney has benefited from a spike in his own favorability rating, which was at -14 in June but now sits at -3. Obama has seen his favorability rating degrade from +3 to -3, meaning the president is now tied with Romney.

Independent voters also appear to have soured on the president. While they favored the incumbent by 9 percentage points in June, they now favor Romney by 7 points, 47 percent to 40 percent. However, independents still hold a net negative view of Romney, 48 percent to 42 percent.

Only two of the possible running mates for Mitt Romney brought Florida into his column. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) would flip the state to Romney, 49 percent to 47 percent. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also pulled the state into Romney’s camp, but by 1 percentage point, 46 percent to 45 percent.

All other possible running mates either had no effect or negatively affected Romney. The most popular of the other three remaining running mates, Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.), whose favorability is dead even with 29 percent liking and disliking him, saw Florida go for Obama at +3.  Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty did not change the margin in any way. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who has the lowest name recognition (45 percent) and likeability (-9), pushed Obama to +4.

PPP surveyed 871 likely Florida voters from July 26-29. The margin of error for the survey is 3.3 percentage points.

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