In the last Rasmussen Reports poll on the Virginia Governor’s Race, Bob McDonnell held a slim two points over Creigh Deeds. In a new poll released today, though, McDonnell has a convincing nine point lead in the race:
Republican Robert F. McDonnell has bounced back to a nine-point lead over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds in the race to become Virginia’s next governor.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Virginia voters finds McDonnell attracting 51% of the vote while Deeds picks up 42%.
Over the past two weeks, McDonnell’s support has gone up three percentage points while Deeds has lost four points. After closing to essentially a toss-up in mid-September, the race is back to where it was in early September, when the GOP hopeful held a nine-point advantage. In August, McDonnell was up by eight.
All of those figures include “leaners.” Leaners are those who initially indicate no preference for either of the candidates but answer a follow-up question and say they are leaning towards a particular candidate
McDonnell’s lead at this time is essentially the same with and without leaners.
McDonnell holds a wide lead among unaffiliated voters. Both candidates draw strong support from within their own party.
Combined with the SurveyUSA poll I noted earlier today, this would seem to indicate that the race has started to swing into McDonnell’s favor.
Barring something dramatic over the next month, I think we’re going to see Republicans sweep all three statewide offices here in Virginia in November.
I tend to believe Rasmussen more than most. However, I am still skeptical of this margin.
Relatively few Deeds stickers/signs in the People’s Republic of Arlington. Also have not seen ACORN folks canvassing the neighborhoods and distributing literature. Deeds is not energizing the liberal elite or the urban populists in NVA — they went into hiding after losing their boys Moran and McCauliffe.