Wall Street Journal: Polls Show Murkowski, Crist Heading in Different Directions

By Gerald F. Seib
The two big Republican mavericks seem headed in different directions.

No, not John McCain and Sarah Palin of 2008, but Senate candidates Lisa Murkowski in Alaska and Charlie Crist in Florida today. Both are trying to buck the party system, she by running for Senate as a write-in candidate and he as an independent.

Two polls, from CNN and Craciun Research, show Murkowski off to a good start in the effort to retain her Senate seat after losing the Republican primary to Joe Miller. She’s down two points in the CNN poll, up 11 points in the Craciun Research survey.

Meantime, a new poll from Quinnipiac University Polling shows Crist, Florida’s governor, trailing Republican nominee Marco Rubio by a hefty 13 percentage points, just the latest sign Crist is fading.

That has to worry Murkowski: Independent candidates tend to fade over time. On the other hand, it’s a good year to at least try: A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey found a quarter of all voters saying they are prepared to vote for an independent or third-party candidate.