Crist hold double-digit lead over Scott in Florida poll

Crist’s lead is buttressed by a Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling survey released Tuesday that showed Scott trailing by 12 points.

{mosads}Crist — who ran for the Senate in 2010 as an Independent against Sen. Marco Rubio after losing to him in the GOP primary — backed President Obama in 2012. He registered as a Democrat last December, tweeting a picture of himself with his registration form at the White House.

He has not announced his candidacy but is strongly considering a run.

Seventy-five percent of Democrats approve of Crist, as well as 48 percent of Independents. That’s compared to 64 percent of Republican voters who hold a favorable view of Scott and 30 percent of Independents.

“The fact that voters think it’s an asset that former Gov. Charlie Crist moved from conservative Republican to a Democrat with very different political views will be a key metric to watch between now and the 2014 voting,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Only 32 percent of voters said Scott deserves a second term in office.

The survey polled 1,000 registered voters from March 13-18. It has a 3.1 percentage point margin of error.