St. Augustine Record: Alex Sink Leading Race for Governor

Poll shows Sink with lead over Scott
By DAVID ROYSE
Created 10/19/2010 - 12:32am
Rubio pulls ahead of Crist by 8 percentage points
The News Service Of Florida

TALLAHASSEE -- A poll released Monday evening as voters finished the first day of voting in Florida showed Democrat Alex Sink with a small lead over Republican Rick Scott with 13 percent of voters saying they're still undecided in the governor's race.

The statewide survey of 500 Florida likely voters conducted Oct.14 to 17 by Massachusetts-based Suffolk University shows Sink with 45 percent of the vote to 38 percent for Scott. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.4 percent.

When asked which candidate for governor has run a more negative campaign, 42 percent of respondents said Scott, 23 percent said Sink, and 35 percent remained undecided.

Suffolk also polled the U.S. Senate race and found Republican Marco Rubio up 39 percent to 31 percent for independent candidate Charlie Crist, with Democrat Kendrick Meek polling 22 percent. Libertarian Alexander Snitker gets 2 percent. Only 6 percent of voters say they're still undecided in that race.

"Florida may be deploying one party to Washington and another party to Tallahassee," said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, in Boston. "Rubio's biggest ally in the U.S. Senate race is his Democratic opponent who is preventing Independent Crist from overtaking Rubio. In the governor's race Democrat Alex Sink's biggest ally is her opponent's negative ads against her. They are turning voters off and turning voters away from Republican Scott."

When Meek voters were asked who would be their second choice if it was apparent Meek could not win, 56 percent of Meek voters chose Crist while only 8 percent would vote for Rubio. More than one in four -- 26 percent -- remain undecided. If Meek dropped out of the race, Rubio's lead would be cut to 5 percent with 20 percent undecided, Paleologos said.

The poll also found 52 percent of Florida voters disapproving of Barack Obama, and 58 percent saying the country is heading in the wrong direction. Nearly 90 percent of respondents said they don't think the recession is over in Florida.

Suffolk also polled the attorney general's race. Republican Pam Bondi leads Democrat Dan Gelber 38 percent to 30 percent in its measurement of that contest, with independent Jim Lewis getting 7 percent.