Rick Scott, Jeff Greene Show That Money Talks in Florida Primary Races

The two wealthy candidates who have burst into Florida's GOP gubernatorial primary and Democratic Senate contest -- Rick Scott and Jeff Greene -- have ridden their cash into leads in each race, although many voters remain undecided and could change their minds, according to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted July 22-27.

"If there was any doubt that enough money can make a political unknown into a front-runner, the Democratic Senate primary and the Republican primary for governor should lay them to rest," said Quinnipiac's Peter A. Brown. "Both Greene and Scott have come from nowhere to hold double-digit leads with just a little more than three weeks until the voting."

Scott, a former health care executive who ran the Columbia/HCA system, leads state Attorney General Bill McCollum in the GOP governor's race by 43 percent to 32 percent with 23 percent undecided, about the same as he polled in a Quinnipiac survey in early June. McCollum had been the presumed nominee until Scott jumped into the race in April.

Forty-three percent of voters say they might change their minds about who they vote for in the August 24 primary, with equal numbers of Scott and McCollum backers in that category.

Fifty-four percent said they'd prefer a governor who is an outsider while 28 percent want someone with government experience, while 18 percent are undecided.

In the Democratic Senate primary, Greene leads Rep. Kendrick Meek, who had also been expected at the outset to get his party's nomination, by 33 percent to 23 percent with 5 percent preferring some other candidate and 35 percent undecided. Meek had led in the early June poll by 29 percent to 27 percent with the rest undecided or preferring someone else. Greene, who describes himself as a "Florida real estate investor," got into the race on April 30.

Fifty-four percent of voters say they might change their minds, with the biggest number -- 62 percent -- being those who say they back Greene for now. Forty-one percent of Meek supporters said they could change their minds.

While Greene is a political newcomer, the money he has been able to spend on advertising has made him somewhat better known to voters than Meek, who has represented a district covering Hollywood and parts of Miami for four terms. Forty-seven percent of voters say they have not heard enough about Greene to form an opinion of him, but that's better than the 55 percent who say the same about Meek.

In contrast to the governor's race, Meek can take some solace in the fact that 44 percent prefer a senator who has years of government experience compared to 35 percent who want an outside, with 21 percent undecided.

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