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Here Comes Marco

Charlie Crist's lead over the competition has been cut in a half, a new poll says

Thursday, Oct 22, 2009 | Updated 10:05 AM EST

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A new poll says Miami's Marco Rubio is running Gov. Charlie Crist down.

Former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio has sliced into Gov. Charlie Crist's early lead in their battle for the Republican nomination in next year's U.S. Senate race, a new poll shows.

The 38-year-old West Miami attorney cut Crist's early advantage almost in half, according to the statewide survey by Quinnipiac University.

"What Rubio has done with at least half of the Republican electorate, (is) convinced them that he's a better Republican," said Peter Brown, assistant director for Quinnipiac's polling operation.

"Rubio's travel around the state is having an impact on Republican activists," Brown said. "These are people who vote in primaries."
Florida primaries are open only to those registered to vote in their respective party's election.

Crist had a lead of 29 percentage points in a Quinnipiac poll of Florida voters in mid-August, but that was sliced to just 15 points in a survey of 396 Republican voters taken Oct. 12-18. That portion of the overall survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

"This is encouraging progress, but we're not breaking out the champagne," Rubio campaign manager Alex Burgos said Wednesday. "It's undeniable that Marco Rubio has energized and struck a chord with Republican voters who know what he stands for."

The poll showed Crist would defeat U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek of Miami in the general election if the election were held now by a margin of 51 percent to 31 percent while Meek and Rubio were nearly a dead heat.