A new Quinnipiac poll just released shows Marco Rubio (finally) making inroads against Charlie Crist in the battle for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2010.
The Governor still has a double digit lead (50% to 35%) over the former House Speaker, but it's dramatically different from a Quinnipiac Poll published two months ago, that had Crist up by 29%. It's further empirical evidence that Rubio is not just gaining plaudits from national pundits far away from the sunshine state, but actually gaining with GOP voters.
From the press release accompanying the new numbers:
"Among Republicans, 44 percent view Rubio favorably, 3 percent unfavorably, up from 24 – 6 percent August 19. But fully half don't know enough about him to have an opinion. Filling in that blank slate for that half of GOP voters – positively by Rubio and negatively by Crist – will decide the nomination.
This news follows Rubio announcing last week that he had raised nearly a million dollars in the previous 3 months – still behind the prodigious numbers that Crist has, but above expectations amongst political observers in Florida.
The survey asked Floridians what they thought of Crist naming his close ally George LeMieux to replace Mel Martinez in the U.S. Senate. The news isn't great for Charlie: 34% were pleased, 32% were not, and 34% had no opinion.
Based on the poll, state Democrats have to be doing everything in their power to see Rubio beat Crist. The Poll shows the Governor blowing away the probable Democratic Party nominee, Kendrick Meek, 51% to 31%.
However, a one on one match up between Rubio and Meek shows the Miami area Congressman leading Rubio, 36% to 33%.
Lakeland Senator Paula Dockery, who has said she will announce whether she will oppose Bill McCollum for the GOP nomination for Governor, gathers only 7% support against the AG in a mock match up. Obviously, her name recognition statewide is virtually non-existent at this time, but it's a cold reality that she will have a formidable challenge in opposing the man who GOP state chair Jim Greer cleared the decks for earlier this year.
Overall, Charlie Crist's approval ratings are at 59%, a number that pollster Peter Brown says" governors of many other states would sell their first born – or at least their running mate – for numbers like that,". He added, "But because only Republicans can vote in the GOP primary, Rubio's strong favorable/unfavorable ratio among Republicans is something that should worry the Governor."
This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2009.