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TALLAHASSEE - A new poll shows that Attorney General Charlie Crist and Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher remain deadlocked in their bid for the Republican nomination for governor - and that either of them could have a tough race with the leading Democratic contender.
Among potential Republican voters in September's primary, Gallagher was backed by 38 percent of respondents to 36 percent for Crist, with roughly a quarter of voters undecided, according to the Nov. 8-13 telephone survey released Tuesday by Quinnipiac University. The results were nearly identical to Quinnipiac's August polling.
The survey also raised the possibility of a close race in November. U.S. Rep. Jim Davis of Tampa, who led state Sen. Rod Smith among Democratic voters for their gubernatorial nomination, was in a statistical tie with the two Republican candidates.
Davis was supported by 25 percent of the Democrats questioned to 15 percent who chose Smith. However, "don't know" remained the choice of 56 percent of the state's Democrats.
Davis has the backing of former Sen. Bob Graham and Scott Maddox, who dropped out of the Democratic primary after his fundraising waned following stories of financial miscues in the Democratic Party when he was its chairman.
The Davis campaign was buoyed by Tuesday's numbers. "We have long since known it's going to be a long race, a long year," campaign spokeswoman Danae Jones said. "Jim is working hard at getting out around the state and talking to people and, more importantly, listening to people."
Quinnipiac's survey of 855 registered Florida voters had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points. The margin of error for Democrats was 5.9 percentage points; for Republicans, 5.6 points.