FL-Sen: Free Fall for Charlie Crist

Public Policy Polling (3/5-8, registered voters, no trendlines)

Charlie Crist (R): 28

Marco Rubio (R): 60

Undecided: 12

(MoE: ±4.4%)

David teased this poll earlier in the digest, but as you can see, things are seriously getting bad for Charlie Crist.

This is PPP’s first poll on Florida, but Rubio’s more than doubling up on Crist now; Rasmussen had this race at 49-37 in Late January. Republican primary voters now disapprove of Crist by a margin of 29-56, which worsens to 20-64 among conservatives.

So what’s the road ahead for Charlie Crist? Probably not in the Governor’s race either:

Charlie Crist (R): 35

Bill McCollum (R): 49

Undecided: 16

Crist’s now also losing to conservative AG Bill McCollum by a hefty margin as well.

With 41% of Republicans wanting Crist out of the party as either an Indy (15%) or Democrat (26%) – compared to 43% who want him to stay, good ol’ Charlie should seriously consider a party switch.

76 thoughts on “FL-Sen: Free Fall for Charlie Crist”

  2. Switching back to Governor was never an option.  Once you’re exposed people smell blood and they will pounce.

    Maybe if George Bush or another Republican was still in the White House they could rescue you like what happened to Specter in 2004.  Or offer you job in Washington.  Or an ambassadorship.

    He needs to come out of the closet and admit there is no room in the Republican Party for him.

  4. Aug 31, I believe. Lots can happen between now and then, though I argued Crist should have suffocated Rubio before he got out of the cradle.

    But even if Crist switches, is he likely to beat him in the general and will Meek get out of the way?

  5. No matter how badly liberal blogs are pushing the rumors so they can take another Senate seat out of the R column (like Connecticut).

  9. Rubio at 60% and Crist below 30%!  Ouch!  That is terrible; that is worse than the fall of Kay Bailey Hutchinsons numbers in the Texas primary and she even had a 3rd candidate to compete against.

  10. Crist has been treated like trash from the Republican establishment.  It’s amazing that he’s getting dumped on for his support for the stimulus package.  The Republicans are nothing more than a dog and pony show.  Publically, any Republican is supposed to trash the package, but privately they can appreciate what the package does for their constituents back home.  The Republicans are so happy to trash “big government”, but when they were the powers to be, spending increased while, at the same time, they kept on cutting taxes.  

    Crist’s Waterloo was when he didn’t spout out the Republican rhetoric that the stimulus package was nothing more than Democratic big government.  Instead, he realized that the Florida economy was (and is) in shambles.  My sister and my parents live in the Tampa area, and their home values have dropped over 40% in the last 3 years.  Unemployment is high, their infrastructure is falling apart, and there’s plenty of signs that the crime rate has increased in certain urban areas.  Crist showed a lot of courage for supporting the stimulus package, but it will probably cost him any chance of a future as a Republican politician.

  11. but just the same, these are shockingly awful numbers for Crist.  He is the governor, considered so popular that the top-tier candidates switched races to make sure they wouldn’t end up facing him, and he is getting waxed by a state representative.

  12. Amazing to recall how right after the ’08 election, Crist was so popular that he was on most pundits’ short lists of the top GOP potential candidates for the 2012 presidential race.

    What a downfall.

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