The Pulse | The politics of health care

Column by Chris Graham

Health-care reform opponents speak as if it’s a given that the passage of reform including a public option and new mandates for private insurers will be an act of political suicide by Democrats.

Take comments from Bill Wilson, the president of the advocacy group Americans for Limited Government, released today on the topic of the U.S. Senate vote to move forward with debate on a reform bill under consideration in the senior chamber of Congress.

The vote was “completely out of step with public sentiment about the legislation,” said Wilson, citing a poll conducted by the right-leaning pollster Rasmussen Reports that suggests that 56 percent of likely voters now oppose the legislation. Continue reading “The Pulse | The politics of health care” »

Two polls: McDonnell up 13 in Rasmussen, 18 in VCU

A new Rasmussen Reports poll has Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell leading Democrat Creigh Deeds by a 54 percent-to-41 percent margin, and a new Virginia Commonwealth University Commonwealth Poll has McDonnell leading by a 54 percent-to-36 percent gap.

Both polls, released on Wednesday, make clear that the strategy of the Deeds campaign to hinge its chances for victory on Nov. 3 on the fallout from the controversial 1989 McDonnell grad-school thesis that blasted working women, public education and gays and lesbians, among others, has failed, and failed miserably. Continue reading “Two polls: McDonnell up 13 in Rasmussen, 18 in VCU” »

Gap narrows, but McDonnell still up by seven

The gap has narrowed a bit, but the latest Rasmussen Reports poll in the Virginia governor’s race still has Republican Bob McDonnell comfortably ahead of Democrat Creigh Deeds.

McDonnell has a 50 percent-to-43 percent lead over Deeds in the latest Rasmussen survey of Virginia voters, which was released Tuesday afternoon.

The McDonnell lead in the Rasmussen poll two weeks ago was 51 percent to 42 percent. Continue reading “Gap narrows, but McDonnell still up by seven” »

Rasmussen: McDonnell 51, Deeds 42

A new poll from Rasmussen Reports has Bob McDonnell reopening a healthy lead over Creigh Deeds in the Virginia governor’s race.

The Rasmussen poll has McDonnell with a 51 percent-to-42 percent lead over Deeds. Deeds had narrowed the McDonnell lead two weeks ago to a 48 percent-to-46 percent margin. Continue reading “Rasmussen: McDonnell 51, Deeds 42” »

Toss-up: New poll has McDonnell-Deeds race too close to call

What was a nine-point advantage for Bob McDonnell in the Virginia governor’s race two weeks ago is now down to two, according to a new poll by Rasmussen Reports released Thursday afternoon.

The poll has McDonnell’s lead at 48 percent to 46 percent for Creigh Deeds. McDonnell led two weeks ago by a 51 percent-to-42 percent margin. Continue reading “Toss-up: New poll has McDonnell-Deeds race too close to call” »

A Deeds surge?

Two new polls are out on the Virginia governor’s race, and both still have Republican Bob McDonnell in the lead over Democrat Creigh Deeds, though the gap is clearly narrowing, to the point that one pollster is suggesting that Deeds could be surging into the lead.

Deeds actually led in the two days of polling done by Public Policy Polling after an article in the Washington Post detailing McDonnell’s controversial master’s degree thesis from McDonnell in which he wrote among other things that working women are “detrimental” to society appeared on Sunday, PPP communications director Tom Jensen wrote on the polling organization’s blog.

Continue reading “A Deeds surge?” »

Poll: McDonnell leads Deeds by three

Republican Bob McDonnell has a three-point lead on Democrat Creigh Deeds in the 2009 Virginia governor’s race, according to a poll out today from Rasmussen Reports.
The poll has McDonnell at 44 percent and Deeds at 41 percent. Rasmussen had Deeds ahead by a 47 percent-to-41 percent margin after the June 9 Democratic Party primary. Continue reading “Poll: McDonnell leads Deeds by three” »

Poll: McDonnell leads Dem rivals

A new poll has Republican Bob McDonnell leading all three of his potential Democratic Party rivals for governor this week.
McDonnell leads former Northern Virginia state legislator Brian Moran by a 39 percent-to-36 percent margin in a poll released Thursday evening by Rasmussen Reports. The attorney general had trailed Moran in a December Rasmussen poll by four points. Continue reading “Poll: McDonnell leads Dem rivals” »

Moran leads McDonnell, according to poll

And the winner is … Brian Moran. OK, so he’s the leader on his way to the first tee.
Moran is the only one of the three candidates for the ’09 Democratic Party gubernatorial nomination who would beat presumptive Republican nominee Bob McDonnell in a head-to-head matchup, according to a poll released today by Rasmussen Reports. Continue reading “Moran leads McDonnell, according to poll” »

Election ’08: Obama, Warner get nod in final pre-election polls

Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

Gallup and Larry Sabato are calling it a Barack Obama landslide, and a summary of the other major national polls has the Democrat on the verge of making history.

Gallup’s final pre-election estimate has Obama winning 55 percent of the vote to Republican John McCain’s 44 percent. Sabato, the University of Virginia political-science professor known for his Crystal Ball predictions, is giving Obama 364 votes in the all-important Electoral College to McCain’s 174.

Continue reading “Election ’08: Obama, Warner get nod in final pre-election polls” »

Poll Watch: Obama opens up double-digit lead in Va.

Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

Two new polls have Democrat Barack Obama opening a double-digit lead in Virginia as the campaign enters the final month.

A SurveyUSA poll released this morning has Obama leading Republican John McCain by a 53 percent-to-43 percent margin. A new Suffolk poll released today has Obama ahead of McCain by a 51 percent-to-39 percent gap.

Virginia’s numbers are tracking ahead of the national polls that have Obama holding a solid lead over McCain. Both the Gallup and Rasmussen Reports polls that we track daily at the Augusta Free Press have Obama ahead of McCain by eight-point margins. The support for Obama measured by Rasmussen has not declined by a single point for 25 consecutive days, according to the pollster for Fox News, while the results in the Gallup polling have officials there calling the underlying dynamics of the race “quite stable.”

Virginia has been unstable in favor of Obama in recent weeks, with what had been a two-point McCain lead in Virginia in the SurveyUSA polls following the Republican National Convention turning into today’s 10-point Obama lead. Obama leads among most of the demographic subgroups – getting majorities of those ages 18-64, males and females (actually pulling slightly more support among males, in a reverse of a campaign-long trend), those who have attended college and those who haven’t, regular churchgoers and agnostics and political moderates.

Most surprisingly, the SurveyUSA numbers have Obama even with McCain in the Shenandoah Valley, at 48 percent each. Obama also has a commanding 60 percent-to-36 percent lead in Northern Virginia and an 11-point lead in military vote-rich Hampton Roads.

The tidbits of note from the Suffolk poll had Virginia voters giving Mark Warner a 57 percent-to-25 percent lead over Jim Gilmore in the U.S. Senate race and Joe Biden a 46 percent-to-26 percent win over Sarah Palin in last week’s vice-presidential debate.

White House ’08: Obama by nine in Va.?

Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

A new CNN/Time Magazine/Opinion Research Corp. poll has Barack Obama up by nine points in Virginia over John McCain in the 2008 presidential race.

The poll, released today, has the Democrat leading McCain by a 53 percent-to-44 percent margin. The last CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corp. poll in Virginia, taken two weeks ago, had McCain up by four points.

Another poll done in Virginia by Insider Advantage/Poll Position 2008 had the Obama lead at 51 percent to 45 percent for McCain. That poll was released on Tuesday.

A quick scan of the national polls has Obama up 49 percent to 42 percent in a Pew Research Center survey, 51 percent to 45 percent in the Rasmussen Reports daily track and 48 percent to 44 percent in the Gallup daily track.