Both Gallagher and Insurance Commissioner Bill Nelson agreed to resign their current jobs to run for U.S. Senate. But Bush and Republican leaders persuaded Gallagher to drop his bid for U.S. Senate and instead run for insurance commissioner to avoid a divisive Republican primary between Gallagher and Congressman Bill McCollum, R-Longwood. The poll shows that Gallagher garnered the support of 51 percent of registered Democrats. Cosgrove received backing from only 32 percent of the Democrats in the survey. Gallagher also took 74 percent of voters in his own party while losing only 11 percent to Cosgrove.
Insurance is important, because hurricanes are a big deal.
Nichols, a Republican, said he planned to vote for Crist because of his record in the state Senate, which included sponsoring legislation to force prisoners to serve longer terms in prison. Crist, however, was having a tougher time attracting support from Democrats than Gallagher. Crist was favored by only 22 percent of registered Democrats, while Democrat Sheldon was winning 55 percent of members from his own party. Seventy-percent of the Republicans participating in the survey said they supported Crist, compared to just 10 percent for Sheldon. A factor in the education commissioner's race could be the 41 percent of independents and third party members who said they were undecided and the 24 percent of registered Democrats who also said they had not made up their minds.