Marco Rubio beats Gov. Charlie Crist by a 60-to-28 percent margin in a Republican Senate primary matchup, a Democratic polling firm says, but Rubio only has a 5-point lead over Democratic frontrunner Kendrick Meek in a hypothetical general election matchup.

The latest survey of 849 Florida voters by North Carolina-based Public Policy Polling, which works primarily for Democratic candidates, shows former Florida House Speaker Rubio with a 44-to-39 percent lead over Miami U.S. Rep. Meek. Crist would beat Meek 46-to-33 percent, according to the poll.

If Crist were to run as an independent, the poll says, he’d finish second with 27 percent to Rubio’s 34 percent. Meek gets 25 percent in that scenario.

Rubio: leads GOP race 54-36

Former Florida House speaker Rubio has a 54-to-36 percent lead over Crist in a poll of 442 likely Republican voters taken last Thursday — the day Rubio made a much-publicized speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

Crist: approval numbers slipping

Rubio had a 12-point lead in a late-January Rasmussen poll. Rubio and Crist were tied in December.

UPDATE: Crist shrugged off the poll results this morning, telling reporters that his main responsibility was to govern and “fight for the people.” Rubio’s campaign sent out a press release announcing the results, but did not offer a reaction.

Marco Rubio, who once trailed Gov. Charlie Crist by 31 points in polling on the 2010 Republican Senate primary, now has a narrow lead in the race, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released this morning.

The poll shows former Florida House speaker Rubio with 47 percent to Crist’s 44 percent among Republicans, a lead within the poll’s margin of error.

The poll also finds Florida voters disapprove of President Obama’s job performance by a 49-to-45 percent margin.

In hypothetical general election matchups, Rubio tops Democratic Senate front-runner Kendrick Meek by a 44-35 margin while Crist tops Meek 48-36.

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Gov. Charlie Crist and former House Speaker Marco Rubio are in a dead heat in the GOP race for the U.S. Senate, according to a poll released this morning.

The Rasmussen Reports telephone survey found Crist and Rubio in a 43-43 percent tie among likely Republican primary voters.

Crist’s lead over Rubio dropped 10 percent in the same poll since August. And the governor’s popularity is at an all-time low, with just 19 percent of respondents having a “very favorable” opinion of him.

Earlier this year, Rubio, the first Cuban-American House Speaker, was considered a long-shot in the race.

But conservative support - including the endorsement of The Club for Growth and U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina - has rallied Rubio’s campaign and drawn national attention to the Florida primary, viewed as a test of the rising “Tea Party” movement and characterizing the fight for the control of the party between moderates and conservatives.

Crist and other GOP leaders have angered Republican conservative base voters who typically show up at the polls to vote in primaries.

This summer, Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer - hand-picked by Crist - snubbed Rubio by endorsing Crist and discouraging primaries that he said weaken the party’s ability to win in the general election.

Crist alienated conservatives by applauding President Barack Obama’s stimulus package symbolized by the now-infamous “man-hug” with the Democratic president.

And he raised eyebrows in August when he appointed his longtime advisor and right-hand-man George LeMieux to replace U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, who retired before his term ended.

The winner of next year’s primary is likely to face off against Democratic U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, who is gathering petition signatures to get onto the ballot.

The latest poll shows Crist with a 50-to-35 percent edge over Rubio. It was 55-to-26 for Crist in August. Rubio is still largely unknown to half of GOP voters.

Crist beats the Democratic Senate frontrunner, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek of Miami, by a 51-to-31 percent margin in the poll. Meek tops Rubio 36-to-33 percent in a hypothetical Senate matchup.

In the 2010 governor’s race, Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum has a 36-to-32 percent lead over Democratic CFO Alex Sink. McCollum has a 43-to-7 percent lead among Republicans over state Sen. Paula Dockery, a potential primary challenger.

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