Jessica Taylor - Politico

Real estate billionaire Jeff Greene has opened up a double-digit lead in Florida’s Democratic Senate primary while Republican health care mogul Rick Scott is maintaining a strong edge in the state’s Republican primary for governor, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.

Both Greene and Scott have dumped millions of dollars in personal wealth into their campaigns, with obvious results: Greene now has a 10-point lead over Rep. Kendrick Meek, outpacing him 43 percent to 33 percent after lagging by two percentage points last month. Former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre trails far behind with four percent of the vote.

Scott, meanwhile, is 11 percentage points ahead of state Attorney General Bill McCollum in the GOP’s gubernatorial primary. Though he entered the race in April, Scott has spent enough money to match McCollum’s name identification despite the latter’s long career in Florida politics.

McCollum’s favorability ratings have also suffered in the face of Scott’s onslaught, and an identical proportion of voters, 34 percent, say they have an unfavorable impression of him as those who say they have a favorable impression. Scott has a net positive favorable rating, with 39 percent of voters having a positive view of him and 26 percent having a negative view.

Both Democratic candidates, on the other hand, remain largely unknown to Florida Democrats: 55 percent said they didn’t know enough about Meek to form an opinion and 47 percent said the same of Greene. The two posted similar favorability ratings, with Meek at 28 percent and Greene at 31 percent.

There are still many undecided voters in both races, leaving ample room for a shift in momentum before the Aug. 24 primary. Thirty-five percent of Democratic primary voters said they hadn’t made up their minds about the Senate race and 54 percent said they could change their decision. On the GOP side, those numbers were 23 percent undecided and 43 percent willing to shift.

Scott’s lead has narrowed only slightly since Quinnipiac’s last survey testing the race in June, in which he was ahead of McCollum by 13 points. And as he blankets Florida airwaves with commercials billing himself a “conservative outsider,” Scott appears to be in line with the mood of the state: 54 percent of likely voters in the GOP primary told Quinnipiac they wanted an outsider candidate, while just 28 percent said they wanted someone with government experience.

The Quinnipiac survey was conducted from July 22 to July 27 and tested 760 likely Republican voters and 782 likely Democratic voters.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40394.html#ixzz0vStTUxoJ