Posted on 08/31/2006 3:29:27 AM PDT by NautiNurse
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris holds a double-digit lead over her three opponents in the Republican race for the U.S. Senate nomination in Florida's Sept. 5 primary election, a new poll released Thursday showed.
Harris, who is serving her second term in Congress from a district representing the Sarasota area, was favored by 38 percent of 317 likely Republican voters in a random telephone survey taken between Aug. 23-28 by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. The survey reported a margin of error of plus or minus 5.5 percentage points.
William McBride, a 34-year-old Windermere attorney, was supported by 22 percent, while retired Navy admiral LeRoy Collins Jr., of Tampa was backed by 11 percent and Peter Monroe, a real estate developer from Safety Harbor, received 3 percent.
The winner of the GOP primary will face incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Melbourne, in the Nov. 7 general election.
A fourth of the likely Republican voters questioned said they were still undecided and nearly a half, 45 percent, said they might change their minds by election day - including a third of those who said they presently favored Harris.
"If Rep. Harris had only one opponent she might be in deep trouble," said Peter Brown, assistant polling director for Quinnipiac. "But having three candidates splitting the anti-Harris vote is a major plus for her."
Harris was rated favorably by 36 percent while 25 percent viewed her unfavorably and another 22 percent said they had mixed opinions about the former Florida secretary of state, who gained notoriety for her role in the 2000 presidential election recount.
Her opponents are so poorly known by most voters that none were rated favorably by more than 18 percent of the respondents.
Folks need not "misunderestimate" Kathy.
No the Republican leadership is only interested in going to bat for RINO's like they did for Arlen Specter.Their probably concentrating all their efforts now on getting RI Senator Lincoln Chafee re-elected !!!
Because she knows how much it irks the "she can't win" crowd. ;o)
Exit polling in which pollsters sought out lefties and lefties went out of their way to get polled, did not make for an accurate poll and even then they were only off 10 points. It was depressing hearing those exit polls, but when the shenanigans going on with them were reported and their inconsitancy with other recent polling, you could rationally discount them. Harris has been slaughter in poll after poll after poll. Playing games with polls can change the results some, but not 40 points. Let's get real here.
No, but it won't happen unless Nelson really screws up like getting caught with a hooker in a hotel room with cocain up in nose. It would really take a disaster of that magnitude.
I'm still waiting for Always Right to answer my question in post #40. ;-)
What do ya know, he answered it just as I was posting to you guys! Looks like the answer is no though...
Ok, but if Harris wins, you at least need to agree to make this your tag line:
(except when I wrongly predicted Katherine Harris would lose)
Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Bill Nelson?
Favorable 49%
Unfavorable 11%
Undecided 40%
Oh I would be happy to be wrong about this and would readily announce how wrong I was.
November will tell.
LLS
As a DemocRat, that would help him win!
I think it just demonstrates how bad Harris campaign has been going. Nelson is beatable and yet this well known candidate is trailing by 40 points. If Nelson was not so beatable this race would not be worth worrying about. But with Nelson weak, it makes sense to try to give McBride a shot to see if he can make it a race. McBride would still be a long shot, but a much better shot than Harris.
She sounds like the perfect candidate for conservatives to support. The ENEMEDIA has attacked this candidate just as they do President Bush! Polls can be manipulated to say whatever the Dems want them to say. In primaries, vote for CONSERVATIVES not RINOs.
I believe the McBride Illegal Immigration March photo will be the last hurrah for him. Better now than after the primary.
McBride's 5 pts behind Harris. I'll grant you that McBride has an uphill climb against Nelson, but he's got a much better chance than Harris. Harris has maxed out, and she's still more than 40 pts behind Nelson. The only way Harris could win this election is if Nelson dropped dead.
McBride has kind of a wild card because as many have noted, he's Hispanic. I suspect that he would cut into some of Nelson's Hispanic support, and that might make it a closer race than some think.
Go KH Go!
You're overlooking a similar 'wild card' with Harris among women. It is among women that Nelson gets most of his support; men split almost 50-50 on Nelson as far as approve/disapprove is concerned.
Today, all of the candidates running in the GOP primary fare equally poorly against Nelson. So what? August polls showed Mondale tied with Reagan; they showed Dukakis beating Bush-41. The mainframe media seems to think that if they repeat this stuff enough times, it will come true. But it doesn't.
Sure, McBride will get some votes. So will Collins. But come next Wednesday, Katherine Harris will be the GOP nominee. At that point, I hope we will see the end of the Harris bashing except from Democrats.
I hope you're right, but I don't see her pulling it off against Nelson. The reason her opponents fare poorly against Nelson is that no one has heard of them. Hopefully, that would end if they got the nomination.
But that's not Harris' problem. She's well known to all, and still comes up more than 40 points short of Nelson.
Frankly, I'm beginning to think that the most likely way we're going to have a GOP Senator in that spot is if Nelson switches parties. Actually, now that I think of it, if Nelson were to retire or be nominated for national office, we'd get a GOP Senator right away.
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