Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson has a strong lead over his Republican challengers, in a new survey of Florida from Democratic firm Public Policy Polling.
Nelson leads Rep. Connie Mack IV 49 percent to 36 percent; he leads former appointed Sen. George LeMieux 48 percent to 35 percent; he leads businessman Mike McCalister 47 percent to 33 percent; and he leads former Rep. Dave Weldon, who recently entered the race, 47 percent to 31 percent. The survey of 642 registered voters has a 3.9 percent margin of error.
PPP’s Tom Jensen notes that the race will likely tighten once the Republicans actually pick a nominee, with more undecided GOP voters than Democrats. But he writes that Nelson still has an ace in the hole: “One thing to keep in mind though is that Nelson has pretty consistently run about 10 points ahead of Barack Obama in the state, largely because of his ability to peel off Republican votes. That means Obama would likely have to not only lose Florida, but lose it by a wide margin to bring Nelson down with him. That seems unlikely.”
The TPM Poll Average shows Nelson at 45.9 percent, and Mack at 39.7 percent.
