Raleigh, N.C. – It’s starting to seem like a broken record, but for the fourth month in a
row Public Policy Polling finds Barack Obama with a two point lead in Virginia. He
leads John McCain 48-46 in the latest survey.
One thing that may be helping Obama to hold onto his lead is that Virginia is the only
battleground state PPP has polled in where Joe Biden gets better overall reviews than
Sarah Palin. Biden has a net 11 point favorability rating with 38% of respondents saying
that his selection made them more likely to vote for Obama while just 27% say his choice
made them less likely to choose the Democrat. Palin has just a two point net favorability,
with 42% saying they are more likely to vote John McCain because of her and 40%
saying they are less likely to do so.
“With states like Ohio and Florida trending more toward John McCain, the ability to hold
onto this small lead in Virginia becomes more and more vital to Barack Obama’s chances
of taking the White House,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “He
wins here, he almost definitely wins overall. He loses here and he has very little margin
for error in Colorado, New Mexico, and some of the closer states that voted for Kerry in
2004.”
Obama leads with voters under 65, women, blacks, and Hispanics while McCain has a
strong edge with senior citizens and white voters as well as a lead among men.
Mark Warner continues to hold a dominant lead in his race for the US Senate. He is now
up 57-33 over fellow former Governor Jim Gilmore.
PPP surveyed 1,090 likely voters from September 13th to 14th. The survey’s margin of
error is +/-3.0%. Other factors, such as refusal to be interviewed and weighting, may
introduce additional error that is more difficult to quantify.
Complete results are attached and can be found at www.publicpolicypolling.com.
If you would like an interview regarding this release, please contact Dean Debnam at
(888) 621-6988 or 919-880-4888.