Might GOP attacks help Democrats?

TAMPA - The Geico Gecko has got nothing on Rick Scott. And that snippy Progressive gal can't hold a candle to Bill McCollum.

Florida's GOP gubernatorial candidates are pushing aside commercial break stalwarts and dominating the television airwaves with attack ads.

McCollum and Scott are each spending a small fortune to blast the other, often back-to-back in the same commercial interlude. The ad blitz is intensifying more than a month ahead of Election Day, which some analysts say is earlier than expected.

As the GOP rivals battle it out for the August 24 primary, some analysts warn that the candidates could do more harm than good.

"Those kinds of ads do turn voters off," said University of Tampa politics professor Scott Paine.

Paine said McCollum and Scott risk annoying and perhaps alienating voters.

"Voters simply decide not to vote for either of the candidates and they don't vote at all," Paine said.

Another possible consequence, Paine said, is that attacking one another so viscously during the primary could ultimately benefit the candidates' shared enemy: Democrats.

"The other party simply gets to say, 'Remember that?'" Paine said. "And it's a lot less expensive and a lot easier and a lot less damaging to that other candidate, because they don't have to run the really negative ad, it's already been done."

Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, the Democrat frontrunner, is the most likely beneficiary.

Paine said Sink's campaign can continue socking away contributions for November at the same time McCollum and Scott will spend millions continuing their ad blitz.

"I think it's going to get nastier," Paine said.

A Public Policy Research poll released Thursday indicated Scott was ahead of McCollum  by 14 percentage points, but enough voters remain undecided to potentially sway the race.

As for the race for Florida's U.S. Senate seat, a new Rasmussen poll shows the candidates are still very close.

The poll shows Republican Marco Rubio leading the way with 35 percent of likely voters, followed by Independent Charlie Crist with 33 percent and Democrat Kendrick Meek with 20 percent if he were to win the Democratic primary.

If Jeff Greene wins the Democratic nomination, Rubio drops to 34 percent of the vote and Crist would come out ahead with 36 percent. The poll shows Greene would get 19 percent of the vote.