Crist poll shows Democrat Kendrick Meek far behind

TAMPA - There are three candidates in the race for U.S. Senate, but Charlie Crist's campaign is trying to make it a two-man race.

The governor, running without party affiliation, is counting on Democrats to abandon their nominee and send him to Washington.

A post-primary poll commissioned by the Crist campaign shows the Governor and Republican Senate nominee, Marco Rubio statistically tied at 35 to 34 percent, with Democratic nominee Kendrick Meek far behind with only 17 percent of the vote.

"I do not put any credence into an internal poll that one of the people in the race decides to put out in the public" said Democratic party official Alison Morano. The Democratic Chair of Chairs also doesn't believe the Crist campaign's effort to cast Kendrick Meek as unelectable will work.

But the endorsement featured on Charlie Crist's website speaks for itself. State Senate Minority Leader Al Lawson broke ranks saying, "I feel very proud today to be able to endorse my good friend Charlie Crist for the U.S. Senate."

The endorsement could send the message to other Democrats that it's O.K. not to support the party's own nominee.

Alison Morano doesn't think the fact that Lawson and Meek are both African-American is significant.

"All the other minority groups are lining up. One or two people that may divert is not something that I'm particularly worried about and I don't think the campaign should be either."