The gubernatorial race in Florida isn't even set yet -- though it's highly likely that Republican Gov. Rick Scottwill be going up against former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, who is now a Democrat.
Based on recent presidential votes in Florida, Crist may be assuming that he'll get the lion's share of the Hispanic vote in the state.
But Scott isn't just giving Crist the Hispanic vote. He's working hard to get the attention of that growing voting block, and Democrats are working hard to keep Hispanic votes on their side -- and to get more Hispanics to the polls in this off-year election.
But PolitiFact Florida says some Florida Democrats may be overestimating the Hispanic vote.
Miami-Dade Democratic chair Annette Taddeo-Goldstein bragged about the size of the Hispanic vote in Florida in an April 21 interview with MSNBC's Ed Schultz.
She said, "Now the Hispanics in Florida account for one in four of every resident in Florida. It is actually the largest in the country when it comes to the percentages. Over 20 percent of the electorate is Hispanic. So it’s going to be decided by Hispanics."
"We rated her statement half-true," said Josh Gillin of PolitiFact. "A lot of the numbers she was using -- the one-in-four of every resident -- that turns out to be the case. It's about 23 percent of the state's residents. Now the problem is, as far as registered voters are concerned, that's a little trickier. What we found is that the state says a little less that 14 percent of the state's registered voters were Hispanic as of October 2012. And that's gone up to a little over a little over 14 since the end of 2013. We talked to Taddeo-Goldstein about this and she said she didn't mean to say electorate, (she) meant to say residents."
