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Garcia Up 7 on Rivera in Floridas 26th Congressional District Voters Have Concerns Over Riveras Ethics and Policies
Democrat Joe Garcia leads Republican David Rivera in the race for Floridas 26 th Congressional seat, a new poll from Public Policy Polling finds. Garcia leads Rivera 46%-39% with 16% of voters undecided. Garcias 7-point lead over Rivera is similar to Obamas lead over Romney in the district. The President leads Romney 52% to 46% in FL-26. Rivera faces an even greater uphill climb as the population learns about both his policy preferences and his personal ethics issues. Voters overwhelmingly oppose turning Medicare into a voucher program, as Rivera favors. Just 24% of respondents support such a plan, while 59% oppose it. When asked who they would support among a choice of two candidates one who supported preserving Social Security and Medicare without any cuts and one who would turn Medicare into a voucher program, voters chose the candidate who would preserve Social Security and Medicare by a 66%-22% margin. Voters also side with Garcia in ending the Bush tax cuts for those making over $250,000 per year 48% to 39%, including 51% of independent voters. Riveras numbers get even worse after voters are educated with regard to some of his ethics scandals. Among voters who say they have heard of ethics issues surrounding either or both of the candidates, a full 68% of those say they have heard of ethics issues surrounding only David Rivera. 63% of voters say they have serious concerns or some concerns about FBI and police investigations regarding improper funneling of Rivera campaign cash to a Democratic spoiler primary candidate in 2012. And 66% of voters have serious concerns or some concerns about Rivera being investigated by the FBI and state officials for tax evasion. After hearing about the ethics issues, Garcias lead balloons to double digits, and he leads Rivera 49-36. PPP surveyed 578 likely Florida 26th district voters from September 12th to 13th. The margin of error for the survey is +/-4.07%. PPP surveys are conducted through automated telephone interviews. Democracy for America, a people-powered political action committee paid for the polling.