Some political pundits say Democrat Terry McAuliffe has all but won the Virginia Governor's race, but a new Quinnipiac University Poll says Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli should not be counted out of the race yet. In fact, it's a statistical dead heat between the two.
44-percent of LIKELY voters favor McAuliffe, while 41-percent favor Cuccinelli. While McAuliffe has a three-point advantage, Quinnipiac's Peter Brown says in the polling world, that IS a dead heat. Add to this, Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis with the support of seven percent of voters, and this election could still go either way.
"Clearly the seven percent that he's getting are important voters and if some of them should decide come election day that they don't want to vote Mr. Sarvis--they want to vote for either two candidates--those voters--who might change their mind, they could make a big difference in the election. In addition, there's six percent of the electorate that's undecided."
And another 12 percent of those who name a candidate say there’s a “good chance” they will change their mind. Brown says both Cuccinelli and McAuliffe are disliked by voters-it's just that the Attorney General is less liked than his opponent. Still, many voters think Cuccinelli is more qualified, while some trust McAuliffe more. Brown says he doesn't doubt that it has something to do with the Star Scientific scandal involving both the Governor and the AG.