Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe holds a 6-percentage-point edge over Republican Ken Cuccinelli in the first Quinnipiac University poll of the campaign among voters likely to cast ballots in the November election.
McAuliffe holds a lead of 48 percent to 42 percent in the survey released this morning, while the down ticket candidates are still unknown to a majority of Virginians.
McAuliffe is viewed favorably by 34 percent and unfavorably by 33 percent, but 31 percent of voters had not heard enough about him to give an opinion.
Cuccinelli, the state’s attorney general, is viewed favorably by 35 percent of voters and unfavorably by 41 percent while only 22 percent hadn’t heard enough to form an opinion, according to the poll.
The poll did not include the Libertarian nominee for governor, Robert C. Sarvis.
“The campaign has been light on issues and big on personalities, and it is in the area of personal characteristics that McAuliffe has a small edge,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the university’s Polling Institute.
“It seems obvious that Gov. Bob McDonnell’s political troubles are hurting fellow Republican Cuccinelli. Guilt by association may not be fair, but it sure is politically powerful. Trust matters and at this point neither man is doing all that well in that category.”
I don’t think McDonnell is impacting the poll at all. I think Cuccinelli is hurting Cuccinelli. According to channel 7 this morning, men are supporting both candidates in equal numbers. The great disparity seems to be among women voters. All of the attacks on reproductive rights does take its toll. Most women, regardless of how they feel about reproductive issues really don’t want to be told how to behave and what is morally appropriate for them.
At some point, the moral police are going to figure this out and decide if they want to get elected to office, then they are going to have to butt out of other people’s business. Cuccinelli led the charge to shut down most of the clinics in Virginia because most will not be able to meet the architectural demands of becoming surgical centers.
Clinics that provide abortions have been singled out and targeted by TRAP laws and most must undergo radical building code renovations to be in compliance. Many other medical procedures are far more invasive and frankly, carry more risk than abortion. Yet urology practices, gastro practices, oral surgery, and cosmetic reconstruction certainly do not have to comply with strict Virginia law.
No, Cuccinelli, you won’t be elected. We know all about you. We know you try to deprive women of their rights. That’s all we need to know.
McAuliffe is going to kick Cuccinelli in da butt!
So is McDonnell dragging the Cooch down or has his extremism sent voters to ABC (anyone but Cuccinelli)?
As I’ve indicated elsewhere, the McDonnells’ troubles are, ironically, probably working in Cuccinelli’s favor at this point. If the McDonnells had not been so undisciplined in their receipt of favours from Star Scientific, Cuccinelli’s willingness to receive largesse from the same source would be far more visible. In a perverse way, the McDonnell lapses are making Cuccinelli look, at least relatively, somewhat principled in that he only took $18,000 from Mr. Williams.
Not sure I can bring myself to vote for McAuliffe. I don’t think either man will make a good governor.