Poll: Warner still strong favorite in Senate re-election bid

Public Policy Polling’s newest Virginia poll finds that Mark Warner as ever remains the most popular politician in the state and would have double-digit leads over a handful of high-profile Republicans for reelection.

Fifty-one percent of voters approve of the job Warner is doing to 31 percent who disapprove. He would lead Bob McDonnell by 15 (51/36), Bob Marshall and Eric Cantor by 16 each (50/34 and 52/36 respectively), and Bill Bolling by 18 (53/35) in hypothetical matchups.

As well liked as Warner is, he would still be no match for Hillary Clinton in the state if she ran for president in 2016. Fifty-one percent of Democrats say she would be their pick for the nomination to 14 percent for Joe Biden, 11 percent for Warner, 6 percent for Elizabeth Warren, 4 percent for Cory Booker, 3 percent for Martin O’Malley, and 2 percent for Andrew Cuomo.

That at least gives Warner more home state support for the White House than McDonnell has. He finishes sizth in the Republican presidential standings – with Jeb Bush and Chris Christie both at 16 percent, followed by Rand Paul at 15 percent, Marco Rubio at 12 percent, Paul Ryan at 11 percent, Ted Cruz at 9 percent, McDonnell at 8 percent, Bobby Jindal at 4 percent, and Rick Santorum at 2 percent.

Clinton has pretty solid leads over all of the Republicans in head to head matchups – except Chris Christie, who she leads only 42/41. The rest she has advantages larger than Barack Obama’s margin of victory in the state over- five points on Jeb Bush at 47/42, 10 on Bob McDonnell at 49/39, and 12 on Marco Rubio and Rand Paul at 49/37 and 51/39 respectively.

Other notes from Virginia:

-Voters continue to be pretty closely divided on Tim Kaine with 43 percent of voters approving of him to 40 percent who disapprove. Those are similar to the sorts of approval numbers Jim Webb had throughout most of his term in office.

-75 percent of voters in the state support expanded background checks for gun purchases to only 17 percent who are opposed. There’s a strong bipartisan consensus on the issue with Democrats (91/6), independents (71/21), and Republicans (61/28) all strongly supportive.

-Virginians support the Voting Rights Act by a 25-point margin, 45/20. And by a 48/23 spread they say they disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision last month to overturn parts of it.

More online: http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2013/07/warner-in-solid-position-for-2014.html.