Floridas CFO Jeff Atwater starts off the 2016 U.S. Senate race in Florida over a field of lesser known candidates if U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., decides to run for president instead of for a second term, a new poll shows. Rubio is expected to announce his plans at an event in Miami next week.
"If U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio runs for president, the fight for his Senate seat will be a test of relatively unknown candidates on both sides of the aisle," Peter Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll, said on Monday. "Florida's Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater has a small edge in exposure to the voters, but we have a long way to go. Whoever wins will be the candidate who does the best job introducing themselves to the voters."
Atwater does well in a new poll from Quinnipiac, leading U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Fla., 38 percent to 34 percent. When matched up against U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., Atwater does even better, leading 42 percent to 32 percent.
Saying he will run regardless of what Rubio does, Murphy launched a Senate bid last month. Atwater has left the door open to running if Rubio opts for the presidency while Grayson has expressed interest in a Senate bid as well.
The poll also includes Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera but he does not do as well as fellow Republican Atwater. Murphy leads Lopez-Cantera 35 percent to 31 percent but the Republican edges Grayson 33 percent to 32 percent.
But none of the four is well-known to Florida voters, the poll shows. Having won two statewide elections, Atwater is the best known, with 29 percent of those surveyed seeing him as favorable while 12 percent view him as unfavorable while a majority of those surveyed -- 58 percent -- dont know enough about him to have an opinion. Grayson does worse, as 20 percent see him in a favorable light, 17 percent view him as unfavorable and 62 percent do not know enough about him to hold an opinion.
Almost three-quarters of those surveyed -- 74 percent -- do not know enough about Murphy to hold an opinion while 19 percent see him as favorable and 6 percent view him as unfavorable. Lopez-Cantera is even less well-known with 78 percent saying they havent heard enough to form an opinion of him while 13 percent view him as favorable and 8 percent see the lieutenant governor in an unfavorable light.
Rubio is in solid shape in the poll with 54 percent of voters approving of his work in Washington while 35 percent disapprove. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., who is up for a fourth term in 2018, is also well above water with 45 percent approving of his work while 30 percent disapprove.
Gov. Rick Scott is upside down in the poll with 49 percent disapproving and 42 percent approving of the governor.
The poll of 1,087 Florida voters was taken from March 17-28 and had a margin of error of +/- 3 percent.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
