The state Republican party ran a television ad in March crediting Scott, who is a year and a half into a four-year term, for drops in the unemployment rate.

'Companies are hiring, expanding, putting more Floridians to work,' the ad narrator said. 'Florida’s unemployment rate continues to get better.'

Florida’s jobless rate was 11.1 percent in December 2010 before Scott took office and 8.2 percent two years earlier when Obama was sworn in.

'The first time I saw that ad I initially thought it was an Obama ad,' said Brad Coker, managing director of the Washington-based Mason-Dixon Polling & Research. 'They’ll have to tamp it down.'