A poll released on Tuesday finds Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson will be sweating it out to win a third term in November.
The poll of likely Florida voters from Rasmussen Reports shows Nelson, who has been on the public stage for four decades, fails to break 50 percent against any of the three leading Republican candidates and is tied with U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, whose father held the seat for two terms before Nelson.
When matched against Mack, who leads polls of the Republican primary field, Nelson takes 41 percent and so does his Republican challenger. Nelson does better against two other Republican candidates. The Democrat incumbent takes 43 percent when matched up against retired Army officer and businessman Mike McCalister, who takes 37 percent. Nelson does best when matched against former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux. In that scenario, Nelson takes 45 percent, while LeMieux trails with 35 percent.
Republican voters seem content with the three leading candidates battling it out to emerge to challenge Nelson after the Aug. 14 primary. Eighty-three percent of Republicans surveyed back Mack when matched up against the Democratic incumbent, while 77 percent of Republicans support McCalister, who ran for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2010 and garnered more than 10 percent.
LeMieux does worse among Republicans, with only 69 percent of them backing him, leading Rasmussen Reports to speculate that the former senators ties with his old ally, former Gov. Charlie Crist who abandoned the GOP after being caught in the 2010 Senate primary by Marco Rubio to continue his Senate bid with no party affiliation, may be hurting him. This may reflect continuing GOP unhappiness with Crist, who bolted the party last year to run as an independent and with whom LeMieux is closely associated, Rasmussen Reports noted.
The poll found most Floridians are not passionately for or against the four leading candidates. Nelson is seen as very favorable by 18 percent and very unfavorable by 16 percent. Seventeen percent see Mack as very favorable while 13 percent view him as very unfavorable. Eight percent see LeMieux as very favorable while 16 percent see him in a very unfavorable light. McCalister is seen by 7 percent as very favorable while 11 percent view him as very unfavorable.
The Rasmussen poll of 500 likely Florida voters was taken on Feb. 13 and had a margin of error of +/- 4.5 percent.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
