A poll commissioned by U.S. Rep Alan Grayson (D-Orlando) shows he is the unlikely pick among Central Florida Republicans in the race for the Florida District 8 seat. Yes, the man named “most vulnerable” by national Republicans after announcing on the House floor that the Republican plan for health care is to not get sick, and if you do get sick, to die quickly, is actually preferred by 27.8% of registered Republicans.

…Grayson is far and away the leading choice among registered Republicans in FL-8. In fact, he has almost twice as much support among Republicans as all his Republican opponents combined.

In the poll, Grayson won the support of 27.8% of registered Republicans. None of Grayson’s 13 opponents scored higher than 3.7%. Their combined performance was only 14.5%. The remaining 57.7% of registered Republicans were undecided.

30.1% of registered Republican women support Grayson. And Grayson has the support of 25.5% of registered Republican men.

Grayson also has an enormous lead in name recognition. 76.9% of Republicans know Grayson; none of his opponents scored higher than 15.1%. 81.4% of Republican men know Grayson, and 72.4% of Republican women know him.

While there is some mystery around the methods of Middleton Market Research, which produced the study, analysts agree it uncovers a problem for the GOP: a lack of credible candidates.

Grayson, of course, claims the results show that people not only know who he is but that they support his efforts.

Grayson received high marks from Republicans for his Constitution initiative. Over half of all Republicans said that they were more likely to vote for Grayson because he passed a resolution urging high schools to teach the Constitution, and he had distributed tens of thousands of copies of the Constitution throughout the district…

Asked to comment, Congressman Grayson said, “it’s like I’ve been saying: People like a Congressman with guts…People of every political persuasion want to see action to help solve their problems, and that’s what they’re seeing from us.”

When asked if he might run in the Republican primary, Grayson said, “as this poll shows, if I did, then I would win.”

There was one more piece of bad news in the research, at least if you’re Gov. Charlie Crist.

…Grayson is more popular among Republicans than Republican Governor Charlie Crist is. 42% of Republicans have an unfavorable opinion of Crist, far more than those who have an unfavorable opinion of Grayson.