ST. PETERSBURG -- After months of public forums, campaign mailers and newspaper articles, St. Petersburg voters still have no clue about who the next mayor should be, a new St. Petersburg Times poll shows.

Sixty-one percent of voters do not know who they would support if the 2009 mayoral election were held today, according to the poll. 

Former City Council member Kathleen Ford received the most support of the 10 candidates, with 10 percent.

The Times surveyed 600 registered city voters June 11-16. The poll has a 4 percentage point margin of error.

After Ford, Bill Foster and Deveron Gibbons each received 8 percent, followed by Larry Williams and Scott Wagman with 4 percent each. City Council member Jamie Bennett received 3 percent of the vote. Newcomer Richard Eldridge received 1 percent.

The results indicate that the candidates have had little success mobilizing voters. A Times poll about the race in December 2007 found that 65 percent of the respondents were undecided.

Cristina Silva, Times staff writer

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