Kerry closes gap with Bush in Florida

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- U.S. President George W. Bush now polls even with Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry in Florida, Thursday's Quinnipiac survey reported.

Kerry, the survey said, has closed a nearly 7-point gap among likely Florida voters and now trails Bush by 1 point, 48 percent to 47 percent, making the race too close to call in this critical battleground state.

Liberal independent candidate Ralph Nader gets 1 percent.

In the Oct. 7 Quinnipiac poll, Bush led Kerry 51 percent to 44 percent among likely voters.

Among registered voters backing Bush, 80 percent said they were voting mainly for the president. Among Kerry supporters, 56 percent indicated they were voting mainly for the Democrat while 39 percent said they were voting mainly against Bush.

"The race in Florida is going down to the wire again. Sen. Kerry, bolstered by his strong showing in the debates, has nearly closed the gap on President Bush," Quinnipiac's Clay F. Richards said, crediting Kerry's strong performance in the debates for sparking the surge. Still, by 56 percent to 35 percent, respondents said Bush would do a better job on terrorism.

Quinnipiac surveyed 1,208 Florida registered voters between Oct. 15 and 19, producing data with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points. The margin of error for the subset of 808 likely Florida voters had an error margin of 3.5 percentage points.