Gov. Charlie Crist’s name recognition keeps him high in the polls, according to the results of a survey released today by Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
Crist leads Marco Rubio in the U.S. Senate race 37 percent to Rubio’s 33 percent. Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek gets 17 percent in the poll. If self-financed political newcomer Jeff Greene wins the Democratic nomination, Crist’s numbers go up to 40 percent to Greene’s 14 percent.
“The question is, what happens when the Democratic nominee has the same name recognition as the others,” says Peter Brown, assistant director of the university’s Polling Institute. Right now, Rubio is the presumptive Republican nominee and Crist, a former Republican, is running as an independent. Meanwhile the Democrats must choose between Meek and Greene in August. Right now, the poll shows Crist winning 37 percent of Florida Democrats, a number likely to decrease when the Democratic nominee starts campaigning heavily.
The poll was conducted among 1,133 Floridians June 1-7, and has a margin of error of of +/- 2.9 percentage points.
