FL-Sen, FL-Gov: Crist Still Thumping Rubio, Both Thump Meek; McCollum Edges Sink

Two polls released earlier today contain more comfortable news for Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. Let's have a look at 'em.

Rasmussen Reports (8/17, likely voters, no trend lines):

Charlie Crist (R): 53
Marco Rubio (R): 31
Other: 5
Undecided: 11
(MoE: ±5%)

31% is the strongest showing yet for Rubio in any of the public polls released to date, but we're still far from the point where Crist would have to breaking a sweat.

General election numbers:

Charlie Crist (R): 48
Kendrick Meek (D): 29
Other: 10
Undecided: 13

Marco Rubio (R): 43
Kendrick Meek (D): 30
Other: 8
Undecided: 19
(MoE: ±3%)

The headline for Rasmussen's piece says that Crist is beating potential Dem candidate Corrine Brown, too, but that head-to-head data is nowhere to be found. Either Rasmussen is holding out on us, or perhaps they're making a reasonable assumption. As for the other poll...

Quinnipiac (8/12-17, registered voters, 6/2-7 in parens):

Charlie Crist (R): 55 (54)
Marco Rubio (R): 26 (23)
Undecided: 18 (21)
(MoE: ±4.6%)

Quinnipiac also tested the Democratic Senate primary, but inexplicably included Congressman Ron Klein, who passed up the race months ago, in the mix. For what it's worth, Meek leads the pack with 18%, followed by non-candidate Klein at 12%, and Brown with 9%.

And, finally, the Governor's race:

Alex Sink (D): 34 (38)
Bill McCollum (R): 38 (34)
Undecided: 25 (25)
(MoE: ±2.9%)

Sure, I'm not crazy about the trend, but I'll take these numbers. For one, with Dems taking a bit of a national hit lately, the fact that McCollum hasn't put more daylight between him and Sink is comforting. But more importantly, Sink has more room to grow: she has a 23-8 favorability rating, with 68% of voters counting themselves as not having heard enough to have an opinion on her. For McCollum, his net favorables are quite good (42-13), but that also means he's more well-known (43% don't enough enough about him). This one's gonna be a real dogfight.

Quinnipiac didn't release general election Senate numbers or Obama approvals in this release -- the latter of which I'm quite interested in seeing. Rasmussen's polling finds Obama with an ugly 42-57 approval rating in the state (with 47% strongly disapproving). I'd like to see how Quinnipiac's approval testing stacks up, at least to see just how Republican-friendly Rassmussen's sample is compared to other pollsters.

http://www.swingstateproject.com/diary/5447/flsen-flgov-crist-still-thumping-rubio-both-thump-meek-mccollum-edges-sink

He strikes me as very lightweight, minor league.

any questions?

playing musical chairs in State politics.

I like Kendrick Meek but I'm guessing he can't raise the money to really gain any traction (yet).