A Miami poll paid for by Donna Shalala shows her as the front-runner in a crowded Democratic field to replace outgoing Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Politico reports.
It's not that the results of the poll for the Clintonite and former president of the University of Miami were great, they just were less terrible than the other seven candidates.
In the poll, Shalala scored a 36 percent favorable rating with 55 percent of those surveyed responding that they didn't know her. But her closest competitor, Jose Javier Rodriguez, scored a 23 percent approval with 70 percent who said they didn't know him.
The results got worse from there for the other six candidates.
Further, Shalala would get just 24 percent of the vote, but that was good enough for first among the candidates, according to the poll, with 51 percent responding they "don't know."
"Sometimes, when a candidate gets a poll back, they ask, 'Why should I really run?' Well, with this poll, the question she's asking is 'Why should I really not run?'" Craig Smith, a longtime friend of Shalala's, told Politico.
Ros-Lehtinen has been a force in the district, having served for more than 20 years in a district that's become more blue over the years. Still, the Republican won reelection despite Hillary Clinton winning her district by more than 19 points.
"When you look at the future of the Republican Party, I think that we would be foolish to not see that we're heading into trouble," Ros-Lehtinen said Sunday.
Shalala, 77, was the Health and Human Services director under Bill Clinton for eight years.
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