Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's main opponent in his coming race for Senate may be his own sagging popularity among the state's Republican voters, according to a poll conducted Oct. 25-28 and commissioned by three Florida news organizations.

Crist angered some of his fellow Republicans last February when he appeared on stage for an event with President Obama to build support for an economic stimulus package that was widely opposed by the GOP.

About two-thirds of Republican voters responding to the poll disagreed with Crist's decision to appear with the president, and half of them said they strongly opposed it, according to The Miami Herald, one of the news organizations sponsoring the survey. The other two news sponsors were Bay News 9 and the St. Petersburg Times.

Former Florida state House Speaker Marco Rubio is cutting into Gov. Charlie Crist's lead in the Republican Senate primary, according to a Quinnipiac University Polling Institute survey conducted Oct. 12-18.

Crist led Rubio by 29 points in mid-August, but in the latest survey, the popular governor was ahead of Rubio 50 percent to 35 percent.

"Gov. Charlie Crist's lead ... has come back down to earth. His margin is still formidable, but obviously Marco Rubio's focus on convincing Republican conservatives that he, not Crist, is their kind of guy is bearing fruit," said Quinnipiac University Polling Institute Assistant Director Peter Brown.

Forty-four percent of Republican voters surveyed said they have a favorable opinion of Rubio while just 3 percent have an unfavorable opinion and 52 percent said they haven't heard enough about him.

Republican Gov. Charlie Crist holds a robust lead over primary opponent Marco Rubio, a former state House speaker, in the 2010 Florida Senate primary race, according to new polls from Quinnipiac University and Rasmussen Reports.

In the Quinnipiac poll of registered voters conducted Aug. 12-17, Crist led Rubio 55 to 26 percent in the race for the open seat. The poll's margin of error for Republicans was plus or minus 4.6 percentage points.

The Rasmussen poll of likely Republican primary voters conducted Aug. 17 found Crist leading Rubio 53 to 31 percent, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Rubio is running to the right of Crist, but trails the governor in name identification and fundraising at this early stage.

The open-seat 2010 race for governor of Florida remains up for grabs.

Republican Bill McCollum, the state Attorney General, edged ahead of Democrat Alex Sink, the state chief financial officer, by 38 percent to 34 percent among registered voters, according to a new poll by Quinnipiac University.

McCollum's edge in the survey, conducted Aug. 12-17, is not definitive, as his 4 percentage-point lead is barely more than the poll's statistical margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points. And more than a quarter of the respondents to the poll -- taken more than 14 months before the general election -- declared themselves undecided.

The new results are an uptick for McCollum, though - an exact reversal from Quinnipiac's June 9 survey that showed Sink leading McCollum by 38 percent to 34 percent.

Republican Gov. Charlie Crist's high statewide name recognition is paying off, with Crist holding strong leads in both the primary and general elections at this early stage in the race, according to a Mason-Dixon Polling & Research survey conducted June 24-26.

The survey found that only 3 percent of voters of all parties failed to recognize Crist and less than 1 percent of likely Republican voters responded that they did not recognize Crist. By comparison, 47 percent of voters of all parties and 48 percent of likely GOP voters surveyed did not recognize Crist's major challenger for the GOP nomination, former state House speaker Marco Rubio.

Although Republicans yet have to choose who their governor and senate candidates will be, Republican contenders hold early leads in general election match-ups for the state's open-seat races for governor and for U.S. Senate, according to two new polls from Rasmussen Reports.

In a poll of the governor's race, Republican state Attorney General Bill McCollum leads Democrat state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink 42 percent to 34 percent among 500 likely voters surveyed June 22. An additional 18 percent of voters were undecided and 7 percent indicated a preference for "some other candidate." The margin of error was 4.5 points.

A new poll indicates that Republican Gov. Charlie Crist's decision not to run for re-election has made the governership vulnerable to a Democratic takeover in 2010.

A Quinnipiac University poll of Florida voters conducted June 2-7 found that Democrat Alex Sink, the state Chief Financial Officer, holds a narrow 38 percent to 34 percent lead over her major competitor in the governor's race: Republican state Attorney General Bill McCollum. The poll's margin of error is 2.8 percentage points.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum may have become the first big name to announce a run for governor now that Charlie Crist has opted for a Senate race, but if the GOP primary was held today, he'd run second to "undecided," according to a Mason-Dixon poll conducted May 14-18.

Matched against state Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, who said he would "hopefully" make a decision on running this week, McCollum leads 39 percent to 12 percent, but 49 percent are undecided. Bronson suffers from the fact that 42 percent don't recognize his name compared to only 18 percent who don't know of McCollum.

The decision of Florida Republican Sen. Mel Martinez not to seek a second term has left a void on both sides of the political spectrum when it comes to the 2010 race, according to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted April 6-13.

Some of the high-profile prospects decided early-on not to seek the seat, such as former GOP Governor Jeb Bush and the state's chief financial officer Alex Sink.

Popular Republican Gov. Charlie Crist could change all that if he decided to seek the seat, although Quinnipiac says that voters by 42 percent to 26 percent would rather see him remain as governor. If Crist did run in a GOP primary against a list of potential candidates tested in the poll, he would garner 54 percent of the vote with all others in single digits.

Unlike poor Jon Corzine in New Jersey, a Democrat whose popularity has been tanking because of the economy in that state, Florida's Republican governor, Charlie Crist enjoys a 66 percent job approval rating even though whose state has been suffering through one of the worst downturns, according to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted April 6-13. Only 23 percent of voters disapprove of the way Crist is doing his job.

Florida voters say by 58 percent to 28 percent with 14 percent undecided that Crist deserves re-election in 2010 and that includes 52 percent of Democrats. Against a generic Democratic opponent, Crist leads 47 percent to 27 percent with 26 percent undecided and, in answer to this question, a quarter of Democrats say they'd back Crist.