Florida Chamber poll shows Marco Rubio with big lead over Patrick Murphy

The race between Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Patrick Murphy is anything but close, at least according to a new Florida Chamber poll.

The survey shows Rubio holds a big lead over Murphy, 51 percent to 37 percent. Eleven percent of respondents either said they didn’t know who they were supporting or refused to say.

The Chamber of Commerce poll was conducted from Oct. 16 through Oct. 19 by Cherry Communications. The poll of 507 of likely and newly registered voters has a margin of error of 4.4 percent.

According to a polling memo, Rubio leads Murphy 52 percent to 46 percent among Hispanic voters, and 60 percent to 33 percent among white voters. He also holds significant leads when it comes to men (56 percent to 36 percent) and women (52 percent to 42 percent).

A quarter of respondents (25 percent) said they had never heard of Murphy, a significant hurdle with just two weeks to go before Election Day. The poll found 27 percent respondents had a favorable opinion of Murphy, while 30 percent said they had an unfavorable view.

Rubio is much better known, with just 2 percent of respondents saying they never heard of him. The poll found 48 percent of Floridians said they had a favorable view of Murphy, while 30 percent said they had an unfavorable view.

The results of the Chamber poll paint a significantly different picture than other recent polls, which show just a few points separated the two men.

A Public Policy Polling survey conducted on Oct. 12-13 showed Rubio leading 48 percent to 43 percent; while a Quinnipiac University poll conducted from Oct. 10-16 showed Rubio with 49 percent, compared to Murphy’s 47 percent. And according to RealClearPolitics, Rubio has an average 3.4 percentage point lead over Murphy.

The Division of Elections reported nearly 1.2 million voters had cast their ballot in the Nov. 8 general election as of Sunday. Early voting is scheduled to begin Monday in about 50 Florida counties.