charlie_crist_12.jpgrick_scott_12.jpgTALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Former Gov. Charlie Crist is leading Republican Gov. Rick Scott by 8 points in a new poll.

The new poll released Thursday by Quinnipiac University also finds that 54 percent do not think that Scott deserves a second term as governor.

Only 41 percent approve of the job Scott is doing.

The gap between Scott and Crist is closer than it was in a poll taken back in March 2013.

But Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, says Scott's momentum has stalled. Scott was trailing Crist by 7 points in a poll taken in November.

Crist, a former Republican who switched to Democrat, formally announced in November he was challenging Scott.

The poll also found that 73 percent support raising the state's minimum wage.