Democrat Terry McAuliffe has pulled into a slim lead in the race to become Virginia's next governor, according to the results of a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday, although the poll suggests that the race is still up for grabs.
The poll found that 43 percent of Virginia voters favor McAuliffe, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, while 38 percent support Republican state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. Another 17 percent are undecided.
Quinnipiac noted that race has been a tossup since it began surveying the contest late last year, with the previous survey conducted in March showing a statistical tie.
Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling institute, said, "The governor's race remains tight and could well go all the way to November as a close contest."
"The 17 percent of voters who say they are undecided will determine the Commonwealth's next governor," he added. "At this point neither man seems to have much of an edge."
Both men have strong support within their own party, while Cuccinelli has a slim 38 percent to 37 percent lead over McAuliffe among independent voters.
The poll showed that neither candidate is particularly well known, as 60 percent said they haven't heard enough about McAuliffe to form an opinion and 42 percent said the same about Cuccinelli.
"At this point, neither candidate sets the electorate's heart atwitter," Brown said. "But we are starting to see the beginning of the television advertising campaign by the two candidates, and presumably those ads will begin to introduce the candidates to the voters."
Looking ahead to 2016, the poll found that Democrats Hillary Clinton and U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virg., would both defeat Republicans Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., in potential races for the White House.
The survey of 1,286 registered Virginia voters was conducted May 8th through 13th and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.
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