McDonnell Widens Lead Over Deeds in Virginia

2 years ago

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Recent polls had been showing Democrat Creigh Deeds closing the gap on Republican Bob McDonnell in the Virginia governor's race, but now the second poll in two days has McDonnell back on top by a comfortable margin.

McDonnell leads Deeds 51 percent to 42 percent with 7 percent undecided when "leaners" are counted and 49 percent to 39 percent and 10 percent undecided when they are not, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted Sept. 29.

A poll released by SurveyUSA Tuesday, conducted Sept. 26-28, had McDonnell up by 14. Two recent polls, by Public Policy Polling (Sept. 25-28) and the Washington Post (Sept. 14-17), had Deeds within 5 points and 4 points, respectively.

Both candidates are below 50 percent in the number of voters who view them favorably, perhaps because of the increased negativity in the campaign. McDonnell's favorable-to-unfavorable ratio is 44 percent to 37 percent, while Deeds's is 46 percent to 45 percent.

Voters trust McDonnell more than Deeds on the issue of taxes by 51 percent to 36 percent, on cutting government by 46 percent to 30 percent, and on confronting the state's transportation problems by 45 percent to 32 percent.

The Rasmussen survey differs with that of PPP's Sept. 25-28 survey on the impact of McDonnell's 1989 graduate thesis criticizing homosexuals and working mothers as detrimental to families. PPP said it didn't make a difference to 59 percent, while Rasmussen said that 51 percent say it's very or somewhat important to their decision, while 40 percent say it's not. Rasmussen didn't offer the "doesn't matter" option.

Eighty percent say that former Democratic Gov. Doug Wilder's refusal to endorse Deeds makes no difference in the way they'd vote.

Filed Under: Polls, Governors, Poll Watch

Tagged: bob mcdonnell, BobMcdonnell, creigh deeds, CreighDeeds, virginia governor race, VirginiaGovernorRace

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