Polls show Senate Republicans with leads in two swing states

Senate Republicans hold comfortable leads in the battleground states of Florida and Ohio in the final week of the election race, polls released Thursday find.

{mosads}In Florida, a new Quinnipiac University survey finds Sen. Marco Rubio leading Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy by 6 points, 50 percent to 44 percent. 

The GOP incumbent has climbed in the Quinnipiac poll since last month. A survey from mid-October had Rubio with a much slimmer lead within the margin of error, 49 percent to 47 percent. 

While Murphy now has a 5-point edge in early voters, Rubio is leading by double digits among independent voters, 54 percent to 38 percent.

“Candidates with a 16-point lead among independent voters rarely lose, and Sen. Rubio, who has that edge over U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, appears to be pulling away from the challenger,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

In Ohio, Quinnipiac found Sen. Rob Portman expanding a double-digit edge over former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland (D), leading by 18 points, 56 percent to 38 percent. In October, Portman was leading by 13 points in a similar poll.

“Sen. Rob Portman once trailed Democrat Ted Strickland, who had a name recognition edge because he had been governor,” Brown said. “But Portman introduced himself to voters and he was soon solidly ahead.”

Portman has been consistently leading Strickland for months — by double digits in most polls.

Rubio has had a smaller lead over Murphy, and the race had been tightening in some recent polls even as some Democratic groups shifted spending to other battleground states. 

Democrats need to net five seats — or win four seats and retain the White House — to retake control of the upper chamber. They are defending 10 seats, while Republicans need to defend 24 seats.

The new Quinnipiac polls were conducted from Oct. 27 to Nov. 1. Pollsters surveyed 626 likely voters in Florida. Their results have a margin of error of 3.9 percentage points. The Ohio poll of 589 likely voters has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.