PPP Poll: Rubio 44, Crist 33, Meek 21

Public Policy Polling (PPP), which has ties to Democratic candidates, released a poll on Tuesday -- and found Republican candidate Marco Rubio with a double-digit lead in the U.S. Senate race. The poll had Rubio at 44 percent, Gov. Charlie Crist -- who is running with no party affiliation --at 33 percent, and Democratic U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek at 21 percent.

The poll showed that, if Meek dropped out, Crist and Rubio would be tied at 46 percent. While there had been rumors of Meek pulling out last week, with prominent national Democrats -- including Barack Obama and Joe Biden -- carrying water for him this week, that scenario looks increasingly unlikely.

Marco Rubios been sitting on a solid lead for weeks now, said Dean Debnam, president of PPP. It will stay that way as long as the Democratic voter remains pretty evenly divided between now and the election. Unless Crist or Meek can break away with Democrats down the stretch, this one will be an early call on election night.

The poll of 448 likely voters was taken on Oct. 9 and 10 and had a margin of error of +/- 4.6 percent.