« In Letter To Kennedy And Baucus, Obama Outlines Principles For Health Reform | Home | AFL-CIO: Sorkin's Comments 'Ignorant,' Vested Interests 'Don't Seem To Know Who's In Unions' »

New Poll Says McAuliffe Still Ahead In Virginia Dem Primary -- But Race Is Up In The Air

By Eric Kleefeld - June 3, 2009, 3:31PM

The new SurveyUSA poll in Virginia finds former DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe still ahead in this Tuesday's Democratic primary for governor -- contrary to a Public Policy Polling (D) survey yesterday that showed him slipping into second place behind state Sen. Creigh Deeds.

The numbers: McAuliffe 35%, Deeds 29%, and former state Del. Brian Moran 26%, with a ±4.4% margin of error. Two weeks ago, SurveyUSA had the race as McAuliffe 37%, Deeds 26%, and Moran 22%.

The pollster's analysis shows that this race remains volatile: "Half of SurveyUSA likely voters say they may yet change their mind. Among voters who say their mind is made-up, Deeds leads, with McAuliffe and Moran a half-dozen points back."

In the general election match-ups against Republican former state Attorney General Bob McDonnell, the Dems currently all trail by varying margins: McDonnell edges Deeds 44%-43%, leads McAuliffe 47%-40%, and is ahead of Moran by 48%-37%.

4 Comments

| Leave a comment

This guy seems like too much of a joker to run Virginia tbh.

Posted by mike from Arlington
June 3, 2009 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink

I realize I haven't been paying attention to the Republican side of things, but I'm surprised that Bill Bolling (current Lt. Governor) isn't running. I looked at his web-site and found that Bob McDonnell ran unopposed at the Republican state convention, and Bill Bolling defeated Patrick Muldoon so will be running for Lt. Governor again. From that page:

Bolling had once considered his own campaign for governor, although an agreement between he and McDonnell prevented a primary challenge that might have resulted in neither candidate being strong enough to face a Democratic Party challenger in the fall. His decision to instead run for re-election has led to a strong sense of gratitude among the rank-and-file GOP members.

Posted by Nebton
June 3, 2009 4:05 PM | Reply | Permalink

Reading further on that page, I think Democrats best approach might be to tie him to the AG candidate Ken Cuccinelli:

In relation to the party's decision to nominate by convention instead of primary, Cuccinelli may be the biggest benefactor of the decision as many believe his conservative positions place him to the far-right even within the party. It was acknowledged that both Brownlee and Foster ran strong campaigns throughout, but neither had Cuccinelli's strength among the far-right within the GOP.

When questioned whether or not this put Cuccinelli at odds with McDonnell and Bolling, both of which have focused primarily on the economy and education in the past months, McDonnell denied the implication, stating that both he and Bolling were both "consistently conservative."

Posted by Nebton in reply to a comment from Nebton
June 3, 2009 4:08 PM | Reply | Permalink

Bolling and McDonnell made a deal to avoid competing against each other. Lt. Gov's can run for re-election in VA, but governors can't; presumably for Bolling (if he wins) it's good enough to be set to run for gov next time around, regardless of who wins this year.

Frankly, I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often in Virginia; it seems like a good strategy. I guess most people who run for Lt. Gov are too ambitious to wait.

Posted by Redshift in reply to a comment from Nebton
June 4, 2009 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink

New Poll Says McAuliffe Still Ahead In Virginia Dem Primary -- But Race Is Up In The Air

4 Comments

Leave a comment

All Times ET

Today - Monday, May 21, 2012

Tomorrow - Tuesday, May 22, 2012