"A new non-partisan poll from Ron Sachs Communications shows Gov. Charlie Crist with a commanding lead over Marco Rubio in the race for U.S. Senate, with other statewide races in a toss up."

New Poll Shows Crist with Big Lead over Rubio, Governor's Race Up for Grabs

May 19, 2009

(TALLAHASSEE) - A new non-partisan poll from Ron Sachs Communications shows Gov. Charlie Crist with a commanding lead over Marco Rubio in the race for U.S. Senate, with other statewide races in a toss up.

The Sachs FlaPoll conducted by Mason Dixon Polling & Research shows Attorney General Bill McCollum ahead of Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink (40%-34%) in the race to replace Crist as Governor, with 1 in 4 Floridians undecided. The full poll is available at www.ronsachs.com.

"The Florida 2010 election will be the most exciting in two generations," said Ron Sachs, CEO of Ron Sachs Communications. "It's going to be a political year that's full of surprises. Voters are waiting to be wooed. This poll shows there is plenty of room for the landscape to change."

Interestingly, the Sachs FlaPoll shows former Gov. Jeb Bush with commanding positive name recognition, superior to any Republicans running for statewide office. It also shows he could retake the Governor's office in a head-to-head match-up with Sink, although Bush has publicly ruled out such a run.

Among the other noteworthy poll findings:

• Neither of the Democrats running U.S. Senate could best Crist if the election were held today, even if they won all the undecided votes.
• Former Gov. Bush has much stronger favorable name recognition among Republicans than Crist (81%-50%).
• Less than one-third of Floridians favorably recognize Bill McCollum, despite his 23 years of public service.
• Crist handily defeats Rubio in a primary (53%-18%) and either U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek (55%-24%) or state Sen. Dan Gelber in a general election.
• McCollum easily defeats Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson in a Republican primary for the Governor's seat (39%-12%) but nearly half of Republican voters (49%) are undecided given those choices.
• If former Gov. Bush were added to the mix, he would win with 64% of the vote in a Republican primary.
• None of Florida's big city mayors whose names were tested (Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer) had favorable name recognition of more than 16%.

The poll of 625 registered voters was conducted between May 14 to 18 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4%. The margin of error for the primary sub-sample is plus or minus 6%. Sachs Communications will conduct the Sachs FlaPoll exclusively with Mason-Dixon periodically between now and the end of the 2010 election cycle to see where voters are on the major issues and races.