McDonnell Holds 8-Point Lead Over Deeds in Virginia

2 years ago

0 Comments Say Something »

Text Size

Contributing Editor

Republican Bob McDonnell leads Democrat Creigh Deeds 49 percent to 41 percent with 10 percent undecided, according to a poll by the Clarus Research Group conducted Oct. 18-19. The margin of error is 4 points.

The last Clarus poll, in mid-September, had McDonnell ahead by 5 points but that poll was of registered voters, and the new one is of likely voters.

"So far in the general election, Deeds has failed to gain sustained momentum," said Ron Faucheux of Clarus. "Over the past five weeks, McDonnell has expanded his lead as he's weathered
attacks on his record as a social conservative."

Faucheux was referring to McDonnell's controversial graduate thesis in which he said homosexuals and working women were anti-family. McDonnell leads Deeds by 45 percent to 44 percent among women.

The motivations of each candidate's base of support is different, the poll found. Deeds' voters back him because of their support for the Democratic party while those favoring McDonnell primarily like him personally.

Filed Under: Polls, Governors, Poll Watch

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

Our New Approach to Comments

In an effort to encourage the same level of civil dialogue among Politics Daily’s readers that we expect of our writers – a “civilogue,” to use the term coined by PD’s Jeffrey Weiss – we are requiring commenters to use their AOL or AIM screen names to submit a comment, and we are reading all comments before publishing them. Personal attacks (on writers, other readers, Nancy Pelosi, George W. Bush, or anyone at all) and comments that are not productive additions to the conversation will not be published, period, to make room for a discussion among those with ideas to kick around. Please read our Help and Feedback section for more info.