The latest Quinnipiac poll of the gubernatorial race is out and it finds…not much has changed, even with Bill Bolling’s exit from the stage:
Virginia State Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is viewed as having better experience while voters see Terry McAuliffe as slightly less ideological, but neither is well-known to voters who are divided on who should be the next governor, with 40 percent for Republican Cuccinelli and 38 percent for Democrat McAuliffe according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.
The decision by Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling that he would not run for governor as an independent has had no effect on the Cuccinelli-McAuliffe matchup as the current dead heat is the same as two previous surveys this year, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds.
The poll of 1098 registered voters has a three percent margin of error.
Aside from Mr. Bolling’s departure making no difference, what other nuggets might be lurking in the numbers?
“At this point in the race, the number of voters who see Cuccinelli as ‘too conservative’ is higher than the number who sees McAuliffe as ‘too liberal.’ But the general public does not see the GOP candidate as a far right kind of guy as some both inside and outside the Republican Party have suggested. It would not be surprising to see McAuliffe try to pin the ideologue label on Cuccinelli but as of now the label does not stick,” said Brown.
Look for McAuliffe to use staples, glue, nails and whatever other fasteners are handy to make that “too conservative for Virginia” label stick.
And one somewhat amusing take away from the poll relates to the General Assembly:
Gov. Bob McDonnell gets a static 53 – 26 percent job approval rating, compared to his 53 – 28 percent in Quinnipiac University’s February 20 survey. The State Legislature has a split 40 – 40 percent job approval, compared to a negative 38 – 46 percent rating last month.
“While the governor is treading water, the legislature seems to have benefitted from the recently concluded legislative session in the eyes of the public,” said Brown.
Two ways to look at that — 1) the GA gets a mild approval bump for being historic and bold and whatnot or 2) and my favorite, they get a slight bump for leaving town when they were supposed to.
