Poll: McDonnell Expands His Lead -- Deeds Now Seen As Negative

The new Washington Post poll of the Virginia gubernatorial race finds Republican Bob McDonnell expanding his lead over Democrat Creigh Deeds, suggesting that attacks over McDonnell's right-wing grad school thesis may have worn off or even backfired on Deeds.

The numbers: McDonnell 53%, Deeds 44%, with a ±3% margin of error. Two and a half weeks ago, when McDonnell was more intensely battling the thesis controversy, he had much narrower lead of only 51%-47%.

The poll also finds that Deeds has suffered from launching too many attacks: "Deeds, a state senator from western Virginia, is widely seen by voters as running a negative campaign, a finding that might indicate his aggressive efforts to exploit McDonnell's 20-year-old graduate thesis are turning voters away."