Gov. Charlie Crist, who has lost a string of straw polls in the U.S. Senate GOP primary, when asked this morning how much straw polls matter:

“Not a lot, as I’ve said before. You know, the only poll that matters is Election Day and I can’t wait for it.”

Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, in one of two e-mails last week announcing straw poll victories in the Republican primary for attorney general:

“I am extremely excited to win the FFCR (Florida Federation of College Republicans) straw poll.”

In what has become a familiar ritual at gatherings of Republican activists across Florida, former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio trounced Gov. Charlie Crist in a straw poll of GOP Senate candidates tonight.

The vote of Palm Beach County Republican Executive Committee members was 90-17 for Rubio, who trails the more moderate Crist in fund-raising and polls of likely GOP primary voters but is a hero with the party’s conservative activist base.

Former New Hampshire Sen. Bob Smith, now a Florida resident and GOP candidate, got 11 votes in the poll. Physician and former congressional candidate Marion Thorpe got 4 votes.

The Palm Beach County result makes Rubio 9-0 in straw polls of county Republican Executive Committee members around Florida. Conservatives dominate the GOP committees across the state, just as liberals dominate Democratic executive committees.

The most recent public polls of likely GOP Senate primary voters were taken in mid-August. A Rasmussen poll showed Crist with a 53-31 lead and a Quinnipiac poll gave Crist a 55-26 advantage.

Palm Beach County’s Republican Executive Committee tonight will consider a resolution to censure Gov. Charlie Crist for bucking the GOP on a variety of matters.

Crist has been criticized by members of his own party for appearing with President Obama at a Fort Myers rally to promote the $787 billion economic stimulus plan. He’s been faulted for not campaigning for some local Republican candidates in 2008 and for appointing Democrats to various posts — including Priscilla Taylor to fill a Palm Beach County commission vacancy last month.

Across Florida. Republican executive committee members tend to be more conservative than the average GOP voter, just as Democratic committee members tend to be more liberal than the average Democrat. Crist has been censured by the Volusia County GOP and lost straw polls of GOP committee members in Highlands, Pasco and Lee counties to Marco Rubio, his rival in the 2010 Republican U.S. Senate primary.

Palm Beach County Republican Chairman Sid Dinerstein and other local GOP leaders oppose the motion to censure Crist. But there’s no telling how the entire committee, which has roughly 120 members, will vote.

Crist shrugged off the Volusia censure earlier this month, saying it had “not much” meaning to him.