Poll: Rubio More Electable Than Crist In Florida Senate General Election

The new Rasmussen poll of the Florida Senate race, in which the establishment Republican moderate Gov. Charlie Crist is in a tight race for the GOP nomination against the more conservative former state House speaker Marco Rubio, finds that the more electable of the two candidates is...Marco Rubio!

Both candidates lead Rep. Kendrick Meek, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, but Rubio leads by more than Crist does. Crist is ahead of Meek by 42%-36%, but Rubio is ahead by 49%-35%. The margin of error is ±3%.

The pollster's analysis explains that Crist could still make up the difference if he does end up winning the nomination: "The reason for the difference is that 79% of conservatives support Rubio but only 62% say Crist can count on their vote. Twenty-four percent (24%) of conservatives say they'd prefer either a third party option or are undecided. If Crist were to win the nomination, it is likely that many of those voters would end up supporting him over Meek."

But what if they didn't? What if they refused to give Crist the satisfaction, and stayed home or voted for a third-party candidate in protest? In the wake of the NY-23 special election, this sort of thing shouldn't be dismissed.