Latest Mason-Dixon Poll: Rubio holds commanding lead

[flpoljunkie]

Mason-Dixon: Rubio holds commanding lead

Posted Oct 29, 2010 by William March
Updated Oct 29, 2010 at 11:59 AM

Marco Rubio has moved to a commanding lead in the U.S. Senate race, while Gov. Charlie Crist and Kendrick Meek are remaining stalled in the race, according to a new poll.

The Mason-Dixon Polling & Research survey shows Republican Rubio at 45 percent, no-party candidate Crist at 28 percent and Meek at 21 percent, with 6 percent undecided. It was done Oct. 25-27, after all but the last of the debates among the three, which occurred Oct. 26.

The calling was completed before stories broke about attempts by President Clinton, with the involvement of Crist, to convince Meek to drop out of the race.

The poll included a sample of 625 likely voters for a 4-point error margin.

The Mason-Dixon results differ sharply from a Quinnipiac University poll released only a day earlier, showing Crist within striking distance of Rubio – Rubio 42 percent, Crist 35 percent and Meek 15 percent, also among likely voters.

Partisan breakdowns in the results, said Mason-Dixon pollster Brad Coker, also are little changed—Rubio has a large lead among Republicans, Meek and Crist are splitting the Democratic vote and Rubio and Crist are splitting the independents.

Rubio hold his lead despite a large gender gap in his support, the poll suggests – 51 percent of male voters favor him, but only 39 percent of female voters.

“There is simply no mathematical formula by which Crist or Meek can approach Rubio’s 45% support level,” Coker said, noting that nearly all the supporters of either Crist or Meek would have to switch to the other candidate to surpass Rubio – an unlikely scenario.

http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/news/story/mason-dixon-rubio-holds-commanding-lead/

[jefferson_dem]

1. I fear the cake is baked in this race.

Meek could have and probably should have gracefully taken one for the team ... weeks ago. Shit.

[Aramchek]

2. yep 28 + 21 would have beaten Rubio. Meek's ego cost us this vote.

[WI_DEM]

3. actually pollsters have looked at the race to see if voters of one candidate

would go over to another if they dropped out and that is not the case. You can't assume that all of Crist's people would have voted for Meek or even all of Meek's voters would go to Crist. As far as ego is concerned, Meek ran as a democrat and won the democratic nomination. It was only after Crist decided he couldn't win the primary as a republican that he jumped out of the race and became an indie. He is a political opportunist. He could have become an indie or dem a long time ago.

[Aramchek]

5. if Meek wasn't in the race, who else are his voters going to vote for, Rubio??

while it's true, all of Crist's supporters might not have switched over to Meek,
the only option Democrats would have is Crist in a contest between him and Rubio.

You can go on all day long about how Meek did everything right.
It doesn't change the fact that he has no chance of election, and Crist does.

[flpoljunkie]

6. Neither does Crist. He's toast, as well.

[Aramchek]

7. only because Meek's staying in it

[RockaFowler]

4. Or Crist could have

You realize that he is a republican. So 2 Republicans should have been in the primary together. But that's OK. I guess we only have 1 party now.

[NJLEFTY]

8. Meek is not meek

Maybe Crist is the one that should pack it in. He has completely screwed up this race by running after he got torched by Rubio.