Two Democratic polls offer good news for the party in Florida

Two Democratic polls offer good news for the party in Florida, as one gives Joe Garcia a lead over his Republican opponent, and another shows Patrick Murphy tied with his.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) released a poll of voters in Florida's 18th congressional district that gives Murphy a 1-point lead over incumbent Rep. Allen West, 47 to 46 percent, well within the poll's 4.9 percentage point margin of error.

That's essentially the same result as a May poll, which showed them tied at 45 percent. But West has a considerably larger war chest than Murphy, and he's spent the past month trying to help voters get to know him in the redrawn district, so a tied race is relatively good news for Murphy.

An internal poll of voters in Florida's 26th congressional district released by Garcia's campaign gives the Democrat a 9-point lead over Rep. David Rivera, 49 to 40 percent. President Obama also leads in the district, with 50 percent support to Mitt Romney's 40 percent.

Rivera continues to attract bad press because of a federal investigation into a congressional candidate linked to the lawmaker. And Garcia was named to the DCCC's Red to Blue program on Thursday, indicating Democrats think it's a race they can win.

But it remains early for the two candidates, and the race could shift. Only 50 percent of voters say they're familiar with Garcia and 43 percent say the same of Rivera. Fortunately for the Republican, a majority of voters haven't heard about the federal investigation, indicating he may still have some time to come out ahead on the issue, but Garcia could pull instead ahead as voters learn more.

The DCCC poll was conducted among 400 likely voters from Aug. 21-24 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points. Garcia's internal poll was conducted among 400 likely voters from Aug. 20-22, and has a margin of error of 4.88 points.

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