David Jolly at the Westshore Grand Hotel in Tampa, Florida on Aug. 8, 2026. / Photo by Dave Decker via Tampa Bay Journalism Project
This time next week, the table will be set for the November midterms. While former Republican David Jolly is all but guaranteed to be the Democrats’ only hope to get back in the governor’s mansion for the first time since Gov. Lawton Chiles, other races—especially the one between Rep. Angie Nixon and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman—will is still a toss up.
Tampa Bay Times political editor Michael Van Sickler was in the WMNF studio on Friday to discuss those races and more with The Skinny.
Also on the program on Aug. 14, Michael A. Bailey, a professor in Georgetown University’s Department of Government and McCourt School of Public Policy, discussed what the public, and reporters, are supposed to do about poll numbers in the modern age.
Bailey—author of “Polling At A Crossroads”—was joined on-air by Susan MacManus, Professor emeritus of political science at the University of South Florida, who discussed how the press can better distinguish between internal polls and ones conducted by less biased pollsters.
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