Yes, in the Quinnipac poll, they have Democrat Kendrick Meek leading Republican Marco Rubio in a hypothetical match-up in Florida’s governor’s race, 36 percent to 33 percent.
But that result mostly reflects that neither man is well-known outside of his geographic base. The poll finds 28 percent are undecided, including 20 percent of Republicans and 38 percent of independents, and 32 percent of white, born-again evangelicals.
The poll finds 71 percent haven’t heard enough about Kendrick Meek to have an opinion on him (it was 80 percent in August); 64 percent haven’t heard enough about Marco Rubio to have an opinion on him (it was 74 percent in August).
As a member of Congress, Kendrick Meek has a lifetime ACU rating of 7.32 and represents a district so liberal, he has never faced even a token Republican opponent, and has effectively run unopposed in every major race of his life. His district has the lowest number of registered Republicans of any district in the state, 41,000, according to my 2006 edition of Barone’s Almanac of American Politics. His mother, Carrie Meek, represented the district from 1992 to 2002, when she announced, two weeks before the deadline, she would not seek reelection. The small window ensured no major competition for her son’s bid. He held a sit-in in Tallahassee over Jeb Bush’s ending the use of racial preferences in state government.
Looking at the other Democrats who have won statewide races in Florida – Bill Nelson, Lawton Chiles, Alex Sink — Kendrick Meek is way, way, way too far to the left to win a statewide race in the Sunshine State.