The American Spectator

In an interesting turnaround, a Rasmussen telephone survey of 500 likely Florida voters, taken Monday and released Wednesday afternoon, shows Republican Congressman Connie Mack IV leading incumbent Democrat Senator Bill Nelson by 47 percent to 36 percent. Another seven percent prefer another candidate and 20 percent don’t know who they prefer.

This new result is an almost exact reversal of an April survey showing 47 percent inclined to give Nelson a third term while 36 percent wanted to replace Nelson with Mack. Rasmussen, with a good record of predicting political races in Florida, has moved the Florida Senate race to “leans Republican.”

The new result is a bit puzzling, as neither candidate has been much in the news in Florida over the past month. But Obamacare has been in the news, and Nelson may be associated with legislation that 52 percent of Floridians would like to see repealed, 44 percent of those strongly. Only 36 percent of Floridians oppose repeal.

Of those who wish to see Obamacare repealed, 85 percent say they favor Mack for the Senate seat.

If ObamaCare has moved the needle in the Florida Senate race, its effect has not been felt in the Florida presidential race. In today’s Rasmussen Florida presidential tracking poll, Romney leads Obama 46 percent to 45. It has been this competitive for a long time. Another five percent back another candidate and just four percent say they are undecided. If this seems like a low number of undecided voters this early in a presidential campaign, that’s because it is.

The margin or error in both surveys is +/- 4.5 percent.