Photo Finish for Florida Guv

Florida GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott. Flickr/<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottforflorida/4517644139/">ScottForFlorida</a>

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Down in the Sunshine State, it’s a nail-biter of a governor’s race, with a new poll released today, on the morning before Election Day, showing Democrat Alex Sink and Republican Rick Scott neck and neck. The poll, released by Quinnipiac University, puts Sink, the state’s chief financial officer, ahead of health-care executive Scott by a single percentage point, 44 to 43. Other candidates claim 4 percent in the poll, while 9 percent are undecided.

Sink may be ahead, but it looks like her momentum is slipping on the eve of Election Day. In a Quinnipiac poll from last week, Sink led Scott by 4 points. Here’s more from the Miami Herald‘s Naked Politics blog:

Sink remains slightly better-liked, with 43 percent of voters having a favorable opinion and 40 percent an unfavorable one. Scott remains upside-down: 50 percent view him negatively; 39 percent positively. Sink is also favored by independents (47-34) and draws slightly more Republican votes (10 percent) than Scott (5 percent).

The poll also finds 9 percent of voters say they might change their minds. That’s probably doubtful. If there’s any change of heart, it could involve not going to the polls. And that would likely hurt Sink. Despite the closeness of the race, Sink remains behind right now, with Republicans vastly outperforming Democrats in votes cast by early and absentee ballots. If Sink fails to inspire rank-and-file Democrats tomorrow, call him Gov. Rick Scott.

And because you’ve read this far, and have soldiered through this bitter, contentious, attack-heavy election season, here’s some lighter fare for you. (Teaser: It’s Alex Sink dancing to “Dangerous” by Akon. Judgment withheld.)

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

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Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

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