UPDATE: As more Democrats peel slowly off to support Charlie Crist in the U.S. Senate contest (but not nearly enough), the narrative that Kendrick Meek would drop out of the race to pave the way for Crist to go one-on-one against Republican Marco Rubio reached such levels yesterday that the state Democratic party held a conference call to quash such rumors.
Of course, Floridians freaked out that the conservative Cuban-American might be representing their state in Washington can exercise their own right by voting for Crist on November 2, but right now not nearly enough are saying that, as the latest Quinnipiac poll released 20 days before the election shows again that Rubio is running away with the race, leading Crist 44%-30%, with Meek trailing far back at 22%.
It's virtually the same strength that Rubio showed in a similar survey done by Quinnipiac two weeks ago, when Rubio led the governor by 13%.
"As the clock ticks down to Election Day, there is no evidence that Marco Rubio’s lead is narrowing. Anything is possible since there are still three weeks left in the campaign, but it appears Rubio’s opponents will need an earth-shaking development to deny him the U.S. Senate seat,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
“Gov. Charlie Crist’s best chance for victory all along required that he outpoll Meek among Democrats and get half the independent vote. He is doing neither.”
This article appears in Oct 7-13, 2010.