A Rasmussen poll out today shows some exceedingly bad news for Florida Gov. Charlie Crist as he hopes to keep alive his bid to earn a U.S. Senate seat as an independent.

Namely, Crist is getting left in the dust by Republican Marco Rubio in overall polls in a similar vein to what was happening to him while running in the Republican primary.

Rasmussen’s numbers indicate Rubio now holds a 39 percent share of the vote, compared to Crist’s 31 percent. Democrat congressman Kendrick Meek sits at 18 percent, with 12 percent undecided.

A poll two weeks ago had Crist at 38 percent to Rubio’s 34. It’s clear that Crist’s bounce upon announcing he’d run as an independent has melted away. And last week’s announcement by the Crist campaign that he wouldn’t return campaign contributions from GOP donors certainly didn’t help his cause.

Rubio is now beating Crist 68-23 among Republicans in Florida, a wider margin than two weeks ago when Crist held 30 percent of the GOP vote. Crist now trails Meek among Democrats, and leads Rubio by only three among independents.