Republican Bob McDonnell now leads Democrat Creigh Deeds by 55 percent to 44 percent among likely voters with 1 percent undecided in the Virginia governor race, according to a Washington Post poll conducted Oct. 22-25. The margin of error is 3 points. That's a 2 point increase for McDonnell compared to the last Post poll.

The new survey comes in the wake of yet another setback for Deeds when the Post ran a story saying that Deeds had ignored advice from the White House on his campaign and that senior Obama administration officials were trying to frame Deeds' problem as his own rather than a referendum on President Obama's popularity.

The White House has been accused of being ham-handed when it comes to its involvement in state races, such as when it publicly tried to pressure New York Gov. David Paterson into dropping a bid for re-election.

Seventy-eight percent of Virginia voters say their minds are made up while 6 percent say there is a good chance that they will change their minds and 14 percent say it is unlikely. McDonnell supporters are more enthusiastic about him than supporters of Deeds. Ninety-one percent of McDonnell backers describe themselves as enthusiastic compared to 75 percent for Deeds.

Voters trust McDonnell more than Deeds on the issue of taxes by 58 percent to 33 percent, on transportation (a hot issue in the state) by 53 percent to 37 percent, and on the economy and jobs by 54 percent to 37 percent. Even on issues of concern to women - an area where McDonnell had initial problems because of his graduate thesis in which he said working women contributed to an anti-family environment - he leads Deeds by 49 percent to 42 percent.

On the question of how much the Virginia election is a referendum on Obama, 70 percent said it was not a factor. Of those who said it was a factor, the top reasons were he was too liberal, not trustworthy, he had created too big a budget deficit, his policies represented socialism or voters just disliked his policies in general. All those reasons were cited by 10 percent or 11 percent of those who said Obama was a factor in making their decision.