Graham spars with Levine, Greene over polls, megamall

Rival candidates continued to zero in on Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner Gwen Graham on Tuesday, with Phil Levine touting a new poll showing him within a few points of her and Jeff Greene calling for Graham to oppose the building of a mall and theme park near her family’s land.

Meanwhile, Graham released a poll showing her lead growing and releasing an ad touting her endorsement by the Everglades Trust that also criticizes Greene for “attacking me personally [and] even falsely attacking my dad, Bob Graham.”

The campaign for Levine, the former mayor of Miami Beach, highlighted Tuesday a new Public Policy Polling survey of 572 likely Democratic primary voters from Aug. 5 and 6 that showed Levine “statistically tied” with Graham, with 26 percent support for Graham and 22 percent for Levine.

Palm Beach billionaire Greene was third with 16 percent, with Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum at 13 percent and Winter Park businessman Chris King at 4 percent.

The PPP poll, which also had President Trump’s disapproval rating at 81 percent, “shows that the race, with nearly 20 percent undecided, continues to be between Levine and Graham,” Levine advisor Christian Ulvert said in a statement.

Levine’s eagerness to make this a race between himself and Graham comes after a July 27 Mason-Dixon poll put Graham 9 points up on Levine. On Monday, Graham’s campaign released an internal ALG Research poll showing her now with a 16-point lead over Levine, Politico reported.

The poll of 800 likely Democratic voters from July 29 to Aug. 2 had Graham with 33 percent compared with Levine at 17 and Greene at 13. Gillum was at 13 percent and King had 4 percent.

Greene and Graham are also at odds over the $4 billion American Dream MegaMall project in MiamiDade County. Greene attacked Graham over the project in last week’s debate, asking “Is it a difficult decision for you to have your family build a mall in the Everglades?” He also released an ad he claimed showed Graham “tonguetied in sidestepping questions.”

Graham responded with her own ad, criticizing Greene for what she said was an unfair attack on her family and playing up her recent endorsement by the Everglades Trust.