New Q-Poll Shows Scott, Crist Race In Virtual Tie
TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) - On the eve of the election, the battle between Gov. Rick Scott and former Gov. Charlie Crist remains a toss-up.
A Quinnipiac University poll released Monday shows Crist, the Democratic candidate, receiving support from 42 percent of likely voters, while Scott, the Republican incumbent, receives 41 percent. Libertarian Adrian Wyllie is at 7 percent.
"After an incredibly expensive, extremely nasty campaign, the Florida governor's race is too close to call," Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Poll, said in a prepared statement. "The winner will be the candidate best able to get his voters to the polls. Turnout, turnout, turnout."
The poll of 817 likely voters was conducted from Tuesday to Sunday. It has a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.
The Connecticut-based Quinnipiac, which frequently conducts surveys in Florida and other states, released a poll last week that showed Crist ahead by a margin of 43 percent to 40 percent, with Wyllie at 8 percent. That poll's margin of error also was 3.4 percentage points.
The new poll shows Crist continuing to enjoy a large lead among women voters, while Scott holds a significant edge among men. It also shows Crist leading by a margin of 39 percent to 32 percent among independents --- a gap that is substantially smaller than in last week's Quinnipiac poll, which showed Crist with an 18-point edge among independents.
Both campaigns focused heavily during the past two weeks on getting supporters to turn out for early voting. But now, the attention is focused on spurring voters to go to the polls Tuesday.
Scott will make a series of campaign stops Monday in Central Florida and will be joined by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, both possible 2016 Republican presidential candidates. Meanwhile, Crist, a former Republican governor running this year as a Democrat, will be joined by former President Bill Clinton at a Monday night rally in Orlando.
The News Service of Florida's Jim Saunders contributed to this report.
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