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Florida Senate Update

Crist Rubio

We have a pair of polls to look at updating us on the Florida Senate race, a general election carpet bomb from Rasmussen, and a peek at the race between the Democrats in the primary from PPP.

Unfortunately, what we don’t have is any clarity.

For the Democrats, PPP tells us what we already knew: it’s still a close race between Kendrick Meek and Jeff Greene. Meek leads Greene 28-25, with two other candidates near the Margin of Error of 5.3. It’s essentially a two way race, and Meek only pulls a 61% lead probability according to my math.

What Rasmussen tells us though is that it might not matter which Democrat runs. In looking at how both Democrats match up against newly left-leaning independent Charlie Crist and against Republican Marco Rubio, the differences look to me like random noise.

Against Meek, the result is Rubio 35 – Crist 33 – Meek 20 (MoE 4.5). Against Greene, it flips to Crist 36 – Rubio 34 – Greene 19. But Rubio only moves one point, as does the Democrat, and Crist moves only three. All of these changes are reasonably explained as noise caused by the randomness of the sample.

I will be interested to see if any of this changes once the Democrats and Republicans have official nominees, when Rubio and either Greene or Meek win their primaries making the choices becomes clear for left and right of center Floridians.

Crossposted from Unlikely Voter

COMMENTS

  • Dave_in_Fla

    What we are seeing is the “hard” supporters for Greene and Meeks are saying “If I can’t have my guy, then I’ll vote for Crist in a fit of pique. I said something similar before the Florida primary in 2008, “I’d rather vote for Obama than that idiot McCain!”.

    These kinds of feelings will subside and they will end up voting for the Dem winner regardless, or at worst staying home. I expect after the Dem primary to see something like Rubio 35, Crist 28, Meeks/Green 25. At the end of the day, Crist is going to split the Dem party, not the Republicans.

  • Michael Dugas

    Let me ask you this, on another topic. Who are you thinking about for Governor? I am not happy with either of the choices on our side. What are your thoughts?

  • deano64

    These polls are making me crazy to think Crist is ahead.

  • Dave_in_Fla

    The mat doesn’t work for Crist. Florida has a partisan breakdown of something like 39D/37R/24I. This isn’t going to be a repeat of Leiberman in CT, because there Ned Lamont barely one the primary, then Leiberman kept most of his support, plus Independents and a few Republicans.

    Here the partisan split is much closer to 50/50 than in CT. Rubio was walking away with the nomination (he was going to win by 20 or better). Crist is also persona non grata with the FLGOP because of the Greer scandal and the party defection.

    Crist would have to get a serious percentage of Dem voters and pull most of the Ind vote too. I can see that happening in a wave election where Florida is voting against Obama. Like it or not, Crist is tightly tied to Obama.

  • Dave_in_Fla

    The negative advertising that is out there against him is really turning me off. And the McCollum campaign is using 3rd parties to do the smearing.

    This Governor’s race has left a really bad taste in my mouth, and I thought the Scott commercial owning up to mistakes at his hospitals was pretty good.

  • Darin_H

    The race for governor stinks this year. McCollum isn’t bad, but he’s just that – even his website and issue page are just bland. He seems politically dumb though, letting Scott run up on him without figuring it out (and he’s behind now). I’d like to like Rick Scott, but I’m having a rough time of it, and every time I hear a Scott ad, it makes me want to go vote for McCollum. He’s driven up McCollum’s unfavorables, but he’s done so at his own expense. PPP (D) has them both trailing now, albeit slightly.

    In the end I think I’m going to vote for Scott, His 7-7-7 plan is just the best thing for Florida and probably makes good campaign sense too.

  • crosley

    I think once the Dem candidate is decided, majority of Democrats will fall in line. This will come out of Crist’s hide.

    I see Crist and the eventual Democrat fighting over the same voters, and if history is any guide, usually independent candidates collapse on election day.

    Rubio will have the entire center-right coalition all to himself, in addition to pulling off a large amount of independents that are upset with the Obama administration, and quite a few Hispanics that may normally vote for a Democrat.

    That’s the dynamic I see happening, but it’s definitely troubling that Crist is polling so well.

  • IJB

    Now I don’t think that’s sustainable. But Rubio is going to have to run some hard-hitting ads to peel off the GOP support for Crist.

    Luckily, I’m starting to see signs that the Rubio campaign, after seeimingly being in a coma for months, is starting to show some signs of life aagin.

    If they just start advertising in Aug., I think they can deflate Crist, and all will be fine…

  • Michael Dugas

    But my wife is an RN and a department manager at a local hospital here and the grief caused by his actions hit close to home. I have a hard time getting past his behavior as CEO of Columbia/HCA but McCollum does absolutely nothing for me nor do I believe he has a plan for Florida. McCollum is a Professional Politician and that’s NOT a positive in my book. Going to be a tough call and it sucks. I wish we had a better group to choose from.

  • Michael Dugas

    until the election gets closer. I also feel there is going to be an October surprise, so to speak, that will hurt Crist and seal the deal for Rubio. Crist’s closet is flat full of skeletons and quite a few upset republican politicos aren’t so eager to keep that door closed anymore
    due to Crist’s bailing on them and running to the enemy. Timing is everything….that’s all I’m gonna say.

  • mschmitt

    There is an option C — he goes by the name of Colonel (ret.) Mike “Bill” Eugene McCalister.

    Here is his professional website:
    http://mikemccalister.com

    If I had time, I’d do some digging and write something up about him (alas…). For now, I am still backing McCollum by default, but I’ve certainly been unimpressed by both campaigns to this point.

    McCalister may not have any intention on winning (I’m not even certain that he knows he’s running at this point), but nonetheless, he is going to be on the ballot — and I’ve half a mind to vote “other” at this point.

  • Adjoran

    Like a rock. But this is better reserved for later, when most voters are paying more attention. For now, Crist is relying upon his greater name recognition and the fact most voters don’t really understand what he is trying to pull here.

    Some Democrats will return to Meek, too, but Hispanic Democrats might be more inclined to support Rubio. In any case, Crist has seen his peak of support already.

  • dudette

    from the Green Iguana….the kind no politician welcomes

  • bk

    that the Dem overlords advocate shunning the black Democrat and backing the white former Republican. I can’t believe that sits well with this part of the Democratic base, but they normally obey orders.

  • Castor

    When the days dwindle down to the precious few before November 2, the conservative grass roots and the GOP organization will get out the vote big time for Marco Rubio . Most of the Dems will go home and Crist will be left swinging in the wind. No independent has ever won state wide in Florida. This time will be no exception.
    I am looking at my absentee ballot and there is a choice for governor between McCollum ,who is leading the lawsuit against obamasnare and happens to be plain vanilla and Rick Scott who I am not sure I can trust.
    Also there is an AG race between Kottkamp and Bondi. Does anyone have any commentds or advice concerning these races. There are four of us here waiting to send in our absentee ballots from Per?.

  • sheryl

    I haven’t seen anything that Crist has done, for the good of Florida. It seems
    he has been working harder for him instead of our great state. I hope he
    loses and we don’t have to see or hear about him, ever.