A new poll shows a wide-open race to replace U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in 2016 with many voters not familiar with some of the top contenders. Rubio, currently running for the Republican presidential nomination, has said he will not run for a second Senate term.
St. Leo University released a poll which shows 42 percent of those surveyed intend to vote for the Democrat while 39 percent plan to vote for the Republican. But a plurality of voters in both parties are not sure who they want as their candidate.
Almost two-fifths of Florida Democrats -- 39 percent -- are not sure who they want as their nominee while 27 percent back U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy and 24 percent support U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson. Murphy is already running for the seat while Grayson has left the door open to entering the race.
A plurality of Republicans are also still undecided, with 43 percent of them not sure who they will support. Former state Attorney General Bill McCollum, who has made two previous U.S. Senate bids and ran for governor, takes 16 percent followed by U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller with 8 percent. Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera takes 7 percent while two Republican congressmen -- Ron DeSantis and David Jolly -- get 6 percent each. Former Florida Senate President Don Gaetz pulls 4 percent while former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux garners 3 percent.
DeSantis is already running for the Republican nomination while Gaetz and LeMieux have said they will not run. McCollum, Miller, Lopez-Cantera and Jolly are still weighing entering the race.
The poll shows Murphy leads the various Republicans in possible general election match-ups but is nowhere near a commanding position with most voters still undecided. Murphy leads Lopez-Cantera 30 percent to 15 percent. When matched against DeSantis, Murphy is out front 33 percent to 14 percent. Against Jolly, Murphy takes 35 percent while the Republican pulls 14 percent. Murphy gets 34 percent while Miller takes 15 percent. The Democrat does best when paired up against Gaetz, beating him 36 percent to 9 percent.
Frank Orlando, who teaches political science at Saint Leo University, said these Senate candidates are still largely unknown.
“None of the candidates has great name recognition statewide just yet,” Orlando said on Wednesday. “It appears that Patrick Murphy has the early advantage, but this may be attributable to him being in the race the longest. As Floridians turn their attention to this important election, more voters will have a clear opinion and the Republicans will tighten up their base support.”
The St. Leo poll of 535 Floridians was taken from May 25-31 and had a margin of error of +/- 4.5 percent.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
