Rubio Now Leads Crist in Florida GOP Senate Race by 2-to-1 Margin

Former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio now leads Gov. Charlie Crist in the race for the GOP Senate nomination by 60 percent to 28 percent with 12 percent undecided, according to a Public Policy Polling survey conducted March 5-8.

Fifty-six percent of Republicans disapprove of Crist's performance as governor while 29 percent approve, with 15 percent undecided. Fifty-percent regard him as too liberal, while 37 percent say his views are about right, 6 percent rate him too conservative and 8 percent are undecided.

Fifty-six percent said they'd like to see Crist out of office altogether, 19 percent wanted to see him remain as governor and 14 percent back him for Senator. Eleven percent were undecided.
Less than half of those surveyed (43 percent) think Crist should remain a Republican. Twenty-six percent say he should become a Democrat, 15 percent say he should be an independent. Sixteen percent are undecided.

"It's been an amazing fall for Charlie Crist," said PPP's Dean Debnam. "At this point it doesn't look like he could win a Republican primary for Dog Catcher.

Rubio is seen favorably by 49 percent and unfavorably by 23 percent with 28 percent undecided.

Rubio leads by 71 percent to 17 percent among conservatives. Crist has a 49 percent to 36 percent margin over Rubio with party moderates, but they account for just 31 percent of likely primary voters, compared to 65 percent who describe themselves as conservative.

On Monday, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who heads the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, said he was honor-bound to stick with his original endorsement of Crist but noted that the committee was not going to spend any money on his behalf. Republicans had embraced the idea of Crist's candidacy early last year because of his high popularity then, which meant the party would not have to spend much money on the race.

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