MIAMI- \u00a0In the most accurate snap-shot yet of one of America’s most watched \u00a02010 races, a new Quinnipiac poll out this morning solidifies Marco Rubio’s large lead in the Florida GOP primary, but shows that Gov.Charlie Crist’s best chance at winning the Senate seat may be as an independent.<\/p>\n
Rubio has opened up a wide, 23-point lead over his opponent Crist with 5 months to go to the Republican primary, according to the survey. However, in a 3-way race with Democratic Congressman Kendrick Meek, Crist — running as an independent –would edge out both \u00a0Rubio, and Meek. If Crist were to file as an independent for the general election, he would get 32 percent of the vote, compared to Rubio\u2019s 30 percent and Meek\u2019s 24 percent, according to Quinnipiac.<\/p>\n
FULL QUINNIPIAC RELEASE:<\/p>\n
RUBIO TOPS CRIST BY 23 POINTS IN FLORIDA GOP SENATE RACE, QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY POLL FINDS; CRIST AS INDEPENDENT HAS SLIGHT EDGE IN 3-WAY RACE<\/p>\n
Marco Rubio has opened up an elephant-sized 56 \u2013 33 percent lead over Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida\u2019s U.S. Senate Republican primary, but in a three-way general election with Rubio on the GOP line, Crist as an independent and Democratic U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, Crist has a razor-thin edge, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. Gov. Crist leads Meek 48 \u2013 34 percent in a general election matchup, while Rubio\u2019s margin over the Democrat is just 42 \u2013 38 percent, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University survey finds. If Crist were to file as an independent for the general election, he would get 32 percent of the vote, compared to Rubio\u2019s 30 percent and Meek\u2019s 24 percent. Rubio, the former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, has virtually reversed the numbers from last June when he trailed Gov. Crist 54 \u2013 23 percent. He has increased his lead 20 points from a January 26 poll when he edged Crist 47 \u2013 44 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything is possible in politics and we have a long way to go until the August primary, but Rubio\u2019s surge against a sitting governor from his own party is similar to Ned Lamont\u2019s Democratic primary win over Sen. Joseph Lieberman in Connecticut in 2006,\u201d said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.<\/p>\n
\u201cA year ago, many observers questioned Rubio\u2019s sanity for potentially risking his bright future by what most at the time considered a quixotic quest. \u201cGov. Crist appears a great deal more viable in a November three-way than he is against Rubio in a Republican primary. But having already ruled out an independent candidacy, he would have to reverse himself by the end of the month due to the filing deadline,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch a public reversal might be politically harmful to the governor, but perhaps not compared to his chances against Rubio at this point,\u201d Brown added. In a three-way general election:<\/p>\n
\u2022\tCrist would get 30 percent of Republicans, 27 percent of Democrats and 38 percent of independent voters;<\/p>\n
\u2022\tRubio would receive 64 percent of GOP votes, 5 percent from Democrats and 29 percent of independents:<\/p>\n
\u2022\tMeek, a congressman from South Florida, would get 55 percent of Democratic votes, 15 percent of independents and no Republicans. Meek is much less known than either of the Republicans with 73 percent of voters not knowing enough about him to rate him either favorably or unfavorably.<\/p>\n
\u2022Rubio is rated favorably by 36 percent; unfavorably by 22 percent and 41 percent don\u2019t have an opinion. Crist is viewed favorably by 48 percent, unfavorably by 35 percent and just 13 percent don\u2019t know enough about him to have an opinion. The size of Rubio\u2019s lead over Gov. Crist in a GOP primary is buttressed by a number of other questions. By 54 \u2013 30 percent, registered Republicans, who are the only ones allowed to vote in a GOP primary, say they trust Rubio more than Crist to do in office what he promises in the campaign. By 56 \u2013 32 percent, they say Rubio more than Crist shares their values and by a 59 \u2013 27 percent margin, they cite Rubio as more consistently conservative than Crist.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Crist remains in the GOP primary, and absent the type of game-changing scandal of which there is no sign, the Governor faces the political equivalent of climbing a 90-degree mountain,\u201d said Brown. \u201cBut in a three-way, he has a possible path to the U.S. Senate.\u201d Florida\u2019s two sitting U.S. Senators, Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican George LeMieux, get job approval ratings of 43 \u2013 30 percent and a split 20 \u2013 21 percent respectively.<\/p>\n
From April 8 \u2013 13, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,250 Florida voters with a margin of error of +\/- 2.8 percentage points. The survey includes 497 Republicans with a margin of error of +\/- 4.4 percentage points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MIAMI- \u00a0In the most accurate snap-shot yet of one of America’s most watched \u00a02010 races, a new Quinnipiac poll out this morning solidifies Marco Rubio’s large lead in the Florida GOP primary, but shows that Gov.Charlie Crist’s best chance at winning the Senate seat may be as an independent. Rubio has opened up a wide, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5040,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-528315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5040"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}