FL-SEN POLL: Rubio 42 (-2), Crist 35 (+5), Meek 15 (-7). FL-GOV POLL: Sink 45 (+1), Scott 41 (-4).

[jefferson_dem]

October 28, 2010 - Rubio Leads Crist By 7 Points In Florida Senate Race, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Sink Inches Ahead Of Scott In Governor's Race

In the Florida U.S. Senate race, Republican Marco Rubio leads Gov. Charlie Crist, who is running as an independent, 42 - 35 percent among likely voters, while Democratic U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek gets 15 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

In the hotly-contested governor's race, State Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, the Democrat, has 45 percent to 41 percent for Republican Rick Scott, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University survey, conducted by live interviewers, finds. Another 11 percent are undecided and 9 percent of those who name a candidate say they might change their mind in this final week before Election Day.

Today's results compare with Quinnipiac University's October 13 survey showing Rubio with 44 percent, followed by Crist with 30 percent and Meek with 22 percent.

An October 12 poll of the governor's race showed Scott with 45 percent and Sink with 44 percent.

"Although the governor's race remains very close, CFO Alex Sink has had a good week," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "But with one in eight voters still in play and Scott's supporters slightly more solid in support, this race looks like it will go to the finish line as a dead heat. "Gov. Charlie Crist has cut into Rubio's margin, but the former state House speaker remains the clear favorite to become Florida's next U.S. senator," said Brown. "With his supporters less likely to change their minds than those of his two opponents, Marco Rubio is in the driver's seat with only five days to go until Election Day. Most of the closure came not from Rubio voters deserting him, but from Congressman Kendrick Meek's voters moving to Crist."

<SNIP>

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1297.xml?ReleaseID=1527

[vaberella]

1. Man...Meek...no.

Huh, maybe there will be a crazy upset.

[lamp_shade]

4. Well... I've talked to a couple hundred dems over the last 2 weeks.

About a third have said they're voting straight dem with the exception of Meek. Interesting, huh?

[vaberella]

5. Very...I have no idea why that is. n/t

[Dawgs]

29. Maybe they want their vote to count for something. n/t

[vaberella]

31. So voting for the progressive Dem is not...understood. n/t

[Dawgs]

32. I don't think you understand at all. n/t

[vaberella]

35. Obviously not.

However, I'd stick for the progressive even if he'll lose to make my point. Crist is like Murkowski----they just want to win so they'll change change their costumes.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

6. After Long And Sober Deliberation I Voted For Meek Because He Had A (D) After His Name

I thought about that vote more than any vote I cast since 1980 when I had to decide between Jimmy Carter and John Anderson. If this race turns out close between Rubio and Crist I am going to be very upset with myself.


Meek never had a chance and everybody in Florida knew that whether or not they would admit it

[vaberella]

21. If I were in Florida I would have voted for Meek.

It was like when they had put Palladino close to Coumo. My vote still went to Coumo---even though I knew Coumo would come through...just by the off chance he didn't....I still would have voted for him.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

24. Voting For Cuomo Was The Easy Choice

He is a Democrat and Palladino is a buffoon and a reactionary, homophobic buffoon at that.

Meek never really had a chance to stop Rubio. So it seemed to come down to deciding if you put party above all and vote for the Democrat or vote for an independent candidate to stop the Tea Bagger. I voted for Meek because I concluded that even if he had no chance of winning and stopping the Tea Bagger neither did Crist.

I am concerned if the race between Crist and Rubio ends up to be close and Rubio wins that I made the wrong decision as I and other like minded Floridians could have prevented that outcome.

My best friend voted for Nader in 2000. I never let him forget if not for Nader's 97,000 votes we would not have had the fiasco in Florida that led to Bush*'s election.

Usually, voting for the Democrat is easy because he or she is the only alternative to the Republican. It becomes much more difficult , in those isolated instances, when the only viable alternative is an independent candidate.

[Bluenorthwest]

28. Crist endorsed Palin as worthy of being President

said she had more experience than Obama. He stood on stage with her in full glory. So from here, parsing him as 'not a bagger' just seems absurd. They are two Palinites vs a Democrat.
Nader was not a Democrat. He was the Third Party candidate. Those who are voting for the Third Party candidate are like Nader voters, those voting for the Democrat are like Gore voters. The end.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

33. If You Insist

Crist was the first Republican governor to accept the state's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) invitation to a convention, and has been described as the state's "first black governor." Crist endorsed legislation requiring paper records of all ballots cast during an election, stemming from criticism that votes were being undercounted in black communities by computerized voting machines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Crist

If you think Charlie Crist is not a preferable alternative to Marco Rubio there is nothing I can do to disabuse you of that notion.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

36. Lincoln Chaffee Endorsed George Walker Bush* Twice As Worthy Of Being President

...So from here, parsing him as not a Republican seems absurd. He is a Republican, not a Democrat, yet the most prominent Democrat in the land tacitly endorsed him.

....


Oh, I voted for the Democrat. If you want to be intellectually consistent you should chastise those who actually vote against Democrats.

End of story.

[Fla Dem]

37. I agonized over this vote. As someone who lives in Fl, I just can not imagine having Rubio

as my senator. Meek's campaign was almost non-existent in NE Florida, where I live; few TV ads, almost no mailings, no robo calls nothing, nada, zilch. I convinced myself the better of 2 , repeat, never, voted for other than a Dem, and this was absolutely tearing me up. I read the ballot, my marker hovered evils was Crist and decided I would vote for him. I early voted last week, dreading what I was going to do as I stepped into the voting booth. I have voted in every primary and general election since I first registered to vote over 30 years ago. I have neverover the oval next to Crist's name, but in the end, it was Meek's oval that was filled in. I'm glad I stayed true to my beliefs, but sad that I gave Rubio one more vote for senator. In the end the fight will be down to Rubio and Crist. I hope there are more Democrats in Florida who are not quite as single minded as me, and will vote for Crist. I just could not. For all of the non-Flordians on DU who yell at us to vote for Meek and think this should be an easy decision, it is not. A vote for Meek was a vote for Rubio, pure and simple.

[MadBadger]

2. Flame me if you want, but if Meek's internals back this up, Id like to see him drop out.

[jefferson_dem]

3. They would have to flame me too...

The only risk is that Meek bailing would probably serve to depress the heavier minority turnout that Sink is counting on to topple Scott.

[lamp_shade]

9. Besides, early voting in FL is almost over. In 2008, 55% of Floridians voted early.

[Cosmocat]

10. It was a tough situation ...

I think if you throw your hat into a race this big, it is asking a lot to pull out and not see it through. Also, Meek is a young guy, and likely will run again, and pulling out hurts him down the road more than losing.

BUT, he was NEVER in this race, and it was always about getting someone who might be a D when it is over, and at least would be one fo the VERY FEW Rs who would be lockstep in the Senate in Crist vs one of the most smug, self entitled and dangerous Rs in this cycle ...

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. This Is The Unvarnished Truth From A Floridian

Most prominent Florida Democrats thought Charlie Crist was a shoo in until he was Tea Bagged, which he was, and therefore stayed out of the race. Kendrick Meek was the sacrificial lamb.

When Crist lost the primary to Tea Party darling, Marco Rubio( We can't call it an upset because his party support collapsed when he embraced President Obama and the stimulus) it changed the calculus for Florida Democrats. Instead of a pragmatic Republican they were confronted with the prospect of a Tea Bagger.

Oh well...

[jefferson_dem]

12. Check out Crist's closing ad... He takes direct aim at Palin and the teabaggers.

Effective ad, in my opinion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyknF-SHlQc

[Cosmocat]

13. Yeah ...

I said the tea baggers would be gremlins - do good and do some bad. They screwed the pooch in deleware, and Alaska might be up in the air, but they definitely got Rubio in, and that is a bad break for ALL of us ...

This swarmy little puke will make Eric Cantor seem like a stand up guy ...

[DemocratSinceBirth]

14. Marco Rubio Is Smooth.

He's no Sarah Palin or Sharron Angle or Christine O'Donnell. He has been able to garner Tea Bag support without coming off as bat shit crazy.

[Cosmocat]

38. Yep ...

He definitely is not the train wreck so many of these clowns have been from a marketing standpoint, but the young buck republicans are even worse than the old ones - same deraganed idiology, but completely self entitled and high off the glam that comes with conservatism now ...

[lamp_shade]

15. I've been pretending long enough....

pretending that is to know what "screwed the pooch" means. I have no idea. How did the term originate?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

16. "Screwed The Pooch" = Messed Up"

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=350436

[lamp_shade]

17. Thank you bunches. I feel informed now.

:hi:

[Turbineguy]

7. That explains

the increasing shrillness of the Rubio and Scott advertisements.

I think Crist will hand Rubio a win, moving the goal posts from conservative to lunatic fringe. Mission accomplished!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

8. If This Turns Into A Crist-Rubio Nailbiter I Am Going To Be Very Disappointed With Myself

~

[flpoljunkie]

18. No regret voting Meek when Crist says 'It depends on the outcome' when asked with whom he'd caucus

[DemocratSinceBirth]

19. Anybody Is Better Than Rubio. Even His Immediate Predecessor

Crist is being coy to get as many votes as possible. His answers on a host of issues make me cringe but I understand the motivation.

[Inuca]

20. Even if he would end up

caucusing with Rs which he very well may, he would still be 100 times better than Rubio. Same as a Murkowski would be when compared to Miller. These people are not liberals but they are NOT extremists. If in FL, I would have voted for Crist, not so sure about Alaska where the D may have a small chance.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

22. He Would Most Likely Caucus With The Majority Party Which Hopefully Will Be Us

~

[flpoljunkie]

23. "Most likely?' A sad commentary on Charlie Crist.

If we thought Crist could beat Rubio, we would have held our noses and voted for Crist. But he can't and he won't beat the loathsome Rubio. It is done.

I will never regret voting for the nominee of our Democratic party.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

26. If Rubio Wins

If Rubio wins by 537 votes I will.

Just like my friend who voted for Nader in 00

[flpoljunkie]

27. Rubio won't win by 537 votes. Those who voted for Nader ought to feel bad. I voted for Gore.

[WI_DEM]

25. looks like dems are coming to believe Meek can't win and moving to Crist.

[vaberella]

30. This is what I'm sort of hearing.

But I just got news by a poster who lives in Florida that the poll may not really reflect the numbers. It seems there's an uptick on day of voting by Seniors---and I know minorities will come through.

[Bluenorthwest]

34. So they'd vote for Rush Limbaugh over Rachel Maddow if

Glen Beck ran as a thrid Party? Got to stop Beckkk, Rush is much less awful, and Rachel can not win, so get out there for Limbaugh.
Voting for the lesser of two evils is one thing, but excluding the good candidate to select between two Palin endorsing right wingers is just nuts. There is no exuse at all, and Florida should be working now to make sure that eventually we can have a national election in which Florida behaves like other States, and is not yet again in need of 'special treatment'. Democrats who just can not manage to actually vote Democratic. I guess they like the new logo, not the candidates.