But the polls shows a group of Florida voters favors U.S. Sen.Bob Graham over his Democratic rivals.
By Associated Press
Published June 23, 2003
TALLAHASSEE - U.S. Sen. Bob Graham leads his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination in Florida, but trails President George W. Bush in a potential general-election showdown, a new poll indicates.
Matched against Bush, the survey of 600 voters - Democrats, Republicans and independents who regularly vote in statewide elections - put the president ahead of Graham 53 percent to 40 percent, with 7 percent undecided.
The poll, conducted for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, found high public-approval ratings for both Graham and Bush in Florida, the state that decided the 2000 presidential election.
Some of the president's strongest support came from Hispanics, who backed him over Graham by 68 percent to 29 percent. Florida Hispanics have strong Re-publican leanings, particularly Cuban-Americans who favor the GOP's tough foreign policies against communist Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
The president led Graham among voters in all regions of the state except South Florida, where the senator led 53 percent to 36 percent.
The poll showed Graham is favored by 49 percent of Democrats sampled, compared to Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, who each drew 10 percent. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts was favored by 8 percent of Democratic voters, and five other candidates drew 6 percent or less.
"To have those kinds of numbers in the fourth-largest state, which happens to be the most important swing state, sends an important signal both to donors and to political leaders who look for verification that we can find a candidate who can win in the South," said Steve Jarding, communications director of the Graham campaign.
The survey was conducted by phone between June 7-11 by Research 2000 of Rockville, Md., which claims a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points on the 600 interviews for a Bush-Graham contest and 4.5 percentage points on 500 interviews conducted for a Democratic primary.
The Bush campaign, which is just getting organized, would not comment on the poll results.
