Latest Poll Shows Crist and Scott Virtually Tied, Libertarian Wyllie Getting 13 Percent | Riptide 2.0 | Miami | Miami New Times | The Leading Independent News Source in Miami, Florida
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Latest Poll Shows Crist and Scott Virtually Tied, Libertarian Wyllie Getting 13 Percent

With less than a month left before the election, most recent polls have shown Charlie Crist and Rick Scott switching slight leads well within the margin of error. The Real Clear Politics average of polls shows Crist with a 1.4 lead while Huffington Post's Pollster gives Scott the 0.8 percent...
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With less than a month left before the election, most recent polls have shown Charlie Crist and Rick Scott switching slight leads well within the margin of error. The Real Clear Politics average of polls shows Crist with a 1.4 lead while Huffington Post's Pollster gives Scott the 0.8 percent lead.

Well, a new poll from Republican-aligned firm 0ptimus shows more of the same. Crist is at 40 percent to Scott's 39 percent. What's surprising about the poll though is that Libertarian candidate Adrian Wyllie scored a surprising 13 percent, his best showing in any poll yet.

The political press has noted Wylie, a man with no previous elected political experience, as a potential spoiler candidate, and his percentage in the polls has only grown thanks in part to his coverage (his previous high mark was 8 percent). Though, no one can quite agree who Wylie's candidacy may end up spoiling.

He netted 13.3 percent of Republican voters, 11.1 percent of Democrats and a hefty 17.8 percent of Independents.

With Reddit voter-style leanings (he's essentially in favor of gay marriage, abortion and legalized marijuana but is a small government fiscal conservative), he's likely gaining ground among younger voters and those turned off by the negative campaigning of the two establishment candidates.

Which is all to say there's no way he wins, but his candidacy seems to certainly be keeping pollsters guessing at to whether Crist or Scott will.

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