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"A shift in the mind-set of independent voters has made Florida's governor's race a ''dead heat,'' according to a new poll by Quinnipiac University.
The poll, released today, shows Democrat Jim Davis narrowing the gap with Republican Charlie Crist to two points -- 46 percent to 44 -- well within the poll's 3.4 percent margin of error.
Two weeks ago, a similar poll by the university found that Crist, the state attorney general, held a 10-point advantage over Davis, a congressman from Tampa. But that lead has eroded because of a 21-point shift among independent voters, said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. Independents flipped from favoring Crist by a 50-43 percent margin to favoring Davis by a 50-36 margin.
The Democrat, who trails Crist significantly in fundraising, waited until two weeks ago to begin running a series of three 15-second television ads."
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"Obviously now that his ads have been on the air he has made significant progress,'' Brown said. ``The Florida governor's election is now a real horse race. It took Jim Davis a while to introduce himself to Florida voters, but he seems to have broken through and made a positive impression on many Floridians to whom he was until recently an unknown."
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15829758.htm