The newest Quinnipiac University poll shows independent Gov. Charlie Crist leading a three-way U.S. Senate race with 37 percent to 33 percent for Republican Marco Rubio and 17 percent for Democrat Kendrick Meek.

If Palm Beach billionaire Jeff Greene is the Democratic Senate nominee, Crist gets 40 percent, Rubio stays at 33 and Greene gets 14 percent, according to the poll of 1,133 voters taken June 1 through Monday with a 2.9 percent margin of error.

In a three-way race for governor, either Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum (33 percent) or Republican businessman Rick Scott (35 percent) tops the field over Democrat Alex Sink and no-party candidate Bud Chiles. That portion of the poll had a 435-voter sample and a 4.7 percent margin of error.

Florida voters oppose increasing offshore drilling by a 51-to-42 percent margin in the poll — compared to 66-27 support in April before the Deepwater Horizon spill.

President Obama’s approval rating is 40 percent, with 54 percent of Floridians disapproving. That’s his all-time low in the state and down from a 50-to-45 percent positive score in April.

In the Senate race, former Republican Crist gets 51 percent support from independent voters and only 28 percent support from GOP voters. If Meek is the Democratic nominee, Crist gets 37 percent Democratic support to Meek’s 44 percent. If Greene is the Democratic nominee, Crist gets 46 percent of the Democratic vote and Greene gets 35 percent.

Crist is the best-known and best-liked candidate in the race. Fifty-two percent of voters have a favorable opinion of him, with 33 percent unfavorable and only 11 percent saying they don’t know enough about him. His job-approval score as governor is 57 percent, up from 49 percent in April.

But Crist’s reputation as a principled public official has dropped. Back in 2007, 60 percent of voters thought Crist made decisions based on “what he thinks is right,” with 25 believing he made them based on “what is popular at the time.” In the latest poll, 43 percent think Crist acts on principle and 48 percent think he’s motivated by expediency.

The new poll also shows 60 percent of voters think Crist dropped out of the GOP race because he couldn’t win the nomination, with only 32 percent saying he did so because he no longer agreed with the party’s core beliefs.

Rubio’s favorable/unfavorable score is 36/28, with 34 percent not knowing him.

Meek remains unknown by 69 percent of voters, including 59 percent of Democrats. Greene, who entered the race April 30 and has spent heavily on TV ads, is unknown by 77 percent of voters and 73 percent of Democrats.

Scott, another wealthy businessman who has invested heavily in TV ads for the goverrnor’s race, has a 31/22 favorable/unfavorable score, with 46 percent of voters not having an opinion. Among Republicans, Scott is viewed favorably by 54 percent and unfavorably by 12 percent. McCollum is viewed favorably by 50 percent of GOP voters and unfavorably by 22 percent.

Chiles, son of former Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles, gets 19 percent of the vote in a three-way governor’s race if McCollum is the GOP nominee and 13 percent if Scott is the Republican candidate. Democrat Sink gets 25 percent and 26 percent, respectively, in those scenarios.

In addition to Obama’s 54-to-40 negative rating, voters disapprove of his handling of the oil spill by a 54-to-37 percent margin. Florida voters also disapprove of the Obama-backed federal health care overhaul by a 56-to-34 percent margin.

Tags: Bud Chiles, oil spill

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 9th, 2010 at 6:51 am and is filed under 2010 campaigns, Alex Sink, Barack Obama, Bill McCollum, Charlie Crist, George Bennett, Jeff Greene, Kendrick Meek, offshore drilling, Rick Scott. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.