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Poll: Keep Crist Governor; Iorio Leads Democrats For Senate

Tribune file photo / The Associated Press

Florida voters want Charlie Crist to remain governor. Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio leads the pack for Democratic U.S. Senate candidates.

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By CATHERINE WHITTENBURG | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 18, 2009

TALLAHASSEE - Florida voters want Charlie Crist to remain governor instead of going to the U.S. Senate, but he is still a strong contender for either race, new poll results show.

And while no Democratic contenders for Senate are obvious frontrunners, Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio leads the pack.

Crist told reporters earlier this month that he will decide after the spring legislative session whether to run in 2010 for Senate seat now held by Mel Martinez, who is not running for re-election. Crist would likely dominate either race given his current 67 percent job approval rating, according to poll results released this morning by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Forty-eight percent of voters said they would vote to re-elect Crist governor, compared with 25 percent who would vote for the Democratic candidate and 27 percent who did not know for whom they would vote.

Forty-one percent said they would prefer him to run for governor instead of the Senate, compared with only 22 percent who preferred a Senate run. If he does run for Senate, however, 53 percent of polled registered Republicans said they would vote for him in the primary.

"Gov. Crist has effectively frozen both the Governor's race and the Senate race. All Republicans are standing back and waiting to see which office he will seek before deciding about their candidacies since no one in their right mind will want to take him on," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

The pollsters surveyed 1,001 Florida voters – including 433 Republicans and 367 Democrats -- from Feb. 11 through Feb. 16. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

If Crist does not run for Senate, U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV, son of the former senator with the same name, becomes the Republican front-runner.

There is no clear leader among Democrats vying for the office, though the pollsters conclude that Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio "is surprisingly well-known and well-liked." Iorio polls higher than other Democratic contenders with 16 percent of registered Democratic respondents saying that they would vote for her if the primary were held that day.

The poll also found that 59 percent of Florida voters support expanding legalized gambling to support education and avoid additional budget cuts.

Sixty-three percent want state lawmakers to approve the gaming compact that Crist negotiated in late 2007 with the Seminole Tribe. The deal guarantees the state at least $100 million per year in exchange for exclusive rights to offer banked card games.

The state Supreme Court found that Crist lacked authority to execute the compact with involving the Legislature, but lawmakers are weighing whether to ratify it this spring.

Reporter Catherine Dolinski contributed to this report. Reporter Russell Ray can be reached at (813) 259-7870.

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