Posted on 09/17/2009 1:00:06 PM PDT by St. Louis Conservative
The race to become the next governor of Virginia has gotten a lot closer. Right now, it’s effectively a toss-up between Republican Robert F. McDonnell and Democrat R. Creigh Deeds.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Virginia voters finds McDonnell attracting 48% of the vote while Deeds picks up 46%. Two weeks ago, McDonnell 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. Premium Members can review the data without leaners and complete demographic crosstabs.
The survey two weeks ago was conducted shortly after The Washington Post ran news stories about a thesis paper written by McDonnell in 1989. The thesis reflected very conservative views on the role of women in society and other topics. Fifty-two percent (52%) of voters now say the writings are at least somewhat important in terms of how they will vote. That’s up from 36% in the previous survey. The number of unaffiliated voters who consider the writings important is up to 47%.
The Washington Post endorsement of Deeds played a key role in helping him win the Democratic nomination earlier this year. Columnnist Michael Barone voiced the frustration of some Republicans by saying that “the news editors of the Post seem to be using their front page once again to defeat the Republican candidate, Bob McDonnell, and elect Democrat Creigh Deeds.” (Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.
(Excerpt) Read more at rasmussenreports.com ...
Ugh, here we go.
He has just passed through the worst couple weeks of his campaign and he is still ahead.
Why was it the worst couple of weeks?
I think it will be McDonnell in a walk.
Time for McDonnell to call in the Palin cavalry. Ask, and if beg, her to come and campaign for him the last week of the election cycle. 5 or 6 rallies of tens of thousands each, will energize people to vote for McDonnell.
Paging Sarah, paging Sarah .... needed in Virginia ASAP !
Deeds self-destructed today on camera regarding new tax increases and had a vintage John Kerry moment.
The Thesis crap.
I call BS. This is still McDonnell’s to lose.
A while back, he said he did not need her, I bet he is regretting those words now
Lets really give Nanzi Pelozi something to cry about.
He revealed that he had a master’s thesis and forgot some of his more conservative ideas he’d written about. The Washington Post has tried to sink his candidacy. When this began, he was ahead by double digits. This has been a media attack.
I call BS, too. Deeds is a sniveling Bush basher with absolutely nothing to offer. While McDonnell needs to step it up, admittedly, I don’t think Deeds could actually get those numbers right now.
McDonnell needs to make sure that he can “fire back” - and hard! - against the enemedia.
Can’t DC just annex northern VA? I am sick of them and don’t want them in my state anymore. They will be problematic again. I see the 8th district Congresscritter voted to keep ACORN funded. What a crook!
A full-fledged media assault... I wonder if there is bias? hhmmm /sarc
rigged poll again?
It’s Raz, highly doubtful
McDonnell is running a “I know my thesis makes me look like a loon but I’m not really a crazy nut who hates working women and doesn’t care about our stinky economy” ad right now. It has to be killing him. That and all of a sudden about last month I stopped receiving any kind of communication from the campaign. No emails, calls nothing. In the spring plenty. Now, none.
Thank you.
I vaguely recall this.
Of course the guy could have just stood up for what he believed. I know the WAPO gave it their all.
The country watches this race closely. How I’d love to see the pubs take this state. Think there’s a chance?
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