"I may be a man without a party but I'm not a man without a people"

But two other surveys suggested that the governor may already be slipping. The polling firm Mason-Dixon placed Rubio 5 points ahead of Crist this month, giving the Republican a 38 percent to 33 percent lead, with Meek trailing at 18 percent. A survey from Democratic-aligned Public Policy Polling showed Rubio taking a 40 percent to 32 percent lead over Crist (Meek was at 17 percent) and prompted pollster Dean Debnam to conclude: “Kendrick Meek’s likely victory … could kill the tripartisan coalition Crist had been building.”

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However shaky, that’s the coalition the governor’s still hoping to hold together. Given his need to draw both Democratic and Republican votes in a three-way race, Crist is highly unlikely to declare before Election Day which party he’d caucus with in the Senate, according to a source familiar with his campaign. And despite signs of movement in the polling numbers, the winning percentage for a candidate like Crist could still be in the high 30 percent range.

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