Gov. Rick Scott's rough poll ratings continue to slowly improve, with his disapproval rating inching down to 50 percent and his approval rating rising to 37 percent, according to a new Quinnipiac Poll released Wednesday.

The poll marked improvement from May, when Scott's approval rating bottomed out at 29 percent and his disapproval rating hit an alarming 57 percent. The numbers had moved to 35-52 by August, after Scott shook up his staff and began a "charm offensive" aimed at improving his standing with voters. Scott began traveling more widely, doing more media appearances and visiting newspaper editorial boards, something he had pointedly avoided during the 2010 campaign.

Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said the poll showed the moves might be paying off. But he also underscored that the improvement in Scott's numbers was incremental.

"They used to be awful, then they got bad. Now they're just a little less bad," he said.

Talking to reporters Wednesday, Scott tried to brush off the poll results with humor.

"Triple the Congress," Scott quipped.

"It's probably the doughnuts," he added a moment later, referring to the pastries he carried with him to editorial board meetings and a session with Tallahassee reporters that marked the unofficial beginning of the offensive. "I give y'all doughnuts."

While Quinnipiac doesn't ask why voters might have changed their position on Scott, Brown highlighted Scott's improvement in a couple of areas. The governor's personal likeability numbers have gone from an 11-point deficit to a 37-37 split. And the number of voters who think the state budget was fair to "people like you" rose 8 points to 41 percent, though 48 percent still think it was unfair.

Scott speculated that it might have something to do with his pet issue of job creation, and the fact that the state has added tens of thousands of jobs since he became governor -- though the unemployment rate has remained relatively high.

"I ran on a campaign of getting jobs going," Scott said. "It probably is tied to people getting comfortable that we're creating more jobs in the state."

The base of Scott's support continues to come from Republican voters, who approve of his job performance at a 70 percent clip, compared to 18 percent disapproval. Democrats are even more negative about the governor than GOP voters are positive; they disapprove by an 82-8 margin. More than half of independent voters -- 54 percent -- still disapprove, compared to 34 percent who approve.

Voters also strongly approve of the state's new law requiring welfare recipients to undergo drug testing, with Republicans and independents overwhelmingly giving the thumbs-up and Democrats almost evenly split on the issue, with 49 percent approving and 50 percent disapproving. The law is being challenged in court.

"We don't poll justices," Brown said.

Quinnipiac said it surveyed 1,007 registered voters from Sept. 14-19. The margin of error on the poll is 3.1 percentage points.