ALREADY CRUNCHING NUMBERS

Over a year and a half away from the governor's race, and already the polls are starting to ask potential voters who the favourite is.

According to Betty Parker in the Fort Myers News-Press, a private client hired the polling firm Mason-Dixon to survey several issues and added the governor's race "almost as an afterthought." However, there are a couple of things you need to keep in mind in reading this: As the poll was not regarding the race, the margin of error was a higher-than-normal seven percent. And the survey was of only about 215 from each party.

It shows that among Democrats, Betty Castor is the leader with 35%, followed by "Bud" Chiles with 19%, Congressman Jim Davis with 9%, and State Senator Rod Smith with 4%. One third were undecided at this point.

On the Republican side, Attorney General Charlie Crist leads with 34%, Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher follows with 19%, Lieutenant Governor Toni Jennings has 9%, with 38% unsure.

To quote the great country music legend (and former Lakeland resident) George Jones, "And the race is on..." (BTW: He appeared a couple of weeks ago at Cypress Gardens Adventure Park, and drew one of the largest crowds ever to see a concert there).