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.
Meanwhile, 63 percent of Republican primary voters had a favorable opinion of Crist, 30 percent viewed him unfavorably and just 3 percent said they haven't heard enough about him.
Looking at a larger sample of 1,078 likely Florida voters, the survey found Crist would win a general election matchup against presumed Democratic nominee Rep. Kendrick Meek, 51 percent to 31 percent.
Rubio, however trailed Meek in a hypothetical matchup, 36 percent to 33 percent. With the larger sample size those questions had a 3 point margin of error. The poll of 396 Republican voters had a 5 point margin of error.
The Quinnipiac poll also looked at the race to choose Crist's successor as governor, and found state Attorney General Bill McCollum, a Republican, leading Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, a Democrat, 36 percent to 32 percent.
CQ Politics currently rates the Florida Senate race Leans Republican.
CQ Politics currently rates the Florida gubernatorial race a Tossup.
To follow all the races, check out the CQ Politics election maps for Senate and governors' races.
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