State of the Race: Virginia Governor (10/31/09)

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FHQ is a day late on the updates in New Jersey and Virginia, but it was all for a good cause. Of course, we wanted to do our yearly homage to Halloween, and what better way to do that than in the context of the gubernatorial races in the Garden state and the Old Dominion. [I still like last year's celebratory Halloween post better.]

The news in Virginia didn't change all that much on Friday. In fact, it didn't change at all. The Daily Kos/Research 2000 numbers were leaked on Thursday, and according to the time stamp, we're up on Thursday as well (at some point), but when FHQ went to (virtual) press, they had yet to be posted. No, that isn't a huge deal, but we cannot incorporate a new poll in to our averages until the time frame in which the poll was conducted has been determined. Without that the poll cannot be properly weighted. Regardless, the underlying message was still the same. Despite the fact that Creigh Deeds topped the 43% mark (for just the third time in all of October), Republican Bob McDonnell still led, and led by double digits. Deeds did have an over two to one advantage over McDonnell in Northern Virginia and narrowly edged the former attorney general among women, but those figures were easily offset by how well McDonnell is doing in this poll in the rest of the state (outside Northern Virginia -- a nearly two to one lead) and among men (a three to two advantage).

2009 Virginia Gubernatorial Race Polling
Poll	Date	Margin of Error	Sample	Deeds	McDonnell	Undecided
Daily Kos/Research 2000	Oct. 26-28, 2009	+/- 4%	600 likely voters	44	54	2

The one stat that continues to give McDonnell much of his cushion is how well the Republican is doing among independents in the Old Dominion. That effect is muted in the Kos survey results compared to other recent polls, but is still high enough for McDonnell to maintain a healthy lead over his Democratic opponent (18 points).

What does that mean for this race? Not much. Well, it doesn't mean anything more than we already knew. Bob McDonnell holds a decided and comfortable margin over Deeds heading into Tuesday's election, and it would take a significant upswing in Deeds' likely turnout numbers and a severe bout of complacency among McDonnell supporters for this one to be anything but a McDonnell win. The true test in this race won't likely be when the race is called so much as how quickly.

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State of the Race: Virginia Governor (10/29/09)