After months as the underdog, Gov. Charlie Crist is back out front in the Florida Senate race, according to public polling. Since Crist dropped out of the GOP primary to run as an independent, polls have shown him leading the three-way contest with likely Republican nominee Marco Rubio and likely Democratic nominee Kendrick Meek.
In the latest poll of the race, conducted late last week by Mason-Dixon, Crist leads the race with 38% of the vote. Rubio is running second with 32% and Meek is a distant third with 19%.
The TPM Poll Average of the race shows a similar result. Crist is polling at 37.9% in the average, with Rubio drawing 32.0% and Meek trailing with 17.6%
According to RTT News, the internal numbers in the new Mason-Dixon poll show Crist is drawing the most votes from registered Independents and Democrats, while Republicans are sticking with Rubio. Fifty-five percent of Indepdendents and 48% of Democrats say they would vote for Crist, while just 18% of Republicans say they’d choose Crist over Rubio.
The string of polls showing Crist ahead is a reversal of fortunes for the one-time GOP superstar. The final polls of the GOP primary showed Crist losing badly to the popular Rubio, forcing Crist to quit the race he once led by double-digits. The Mason-Dixon poll shows Rubio remains popular with Republicans, drawing 70% of their vote in the three-way contest.
The same can’t be said for Meek, who has struggled as the closely-watched Rubio-Crist fight sucked up much of the oxygen in the Senate race. Despite his early fundraising successes and endorsements from prominent Democrats like former president Bill Clinton, the Mason-Dixon poll shows that Meek has failed to create a lot of excitement among his base. Just 36% of Democrats said they would vote for him in a three-way race that includes Crist on the unaffiliated line.
The Mason-Dixon poll was conducted on May 3-5 among 625 registered voters in Florida. The margin of error is 5.0%.
