President Obama is leading Republican presidential contenders Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in Virginia by margins nearly equal to his historic six-point victory over Sen. John McCain in 2008, a new poll shows.
Obama’s job performance rating is pretty much split, with 48 percent of Virginians approving of the president and 47 percent disapproving.
The survey, released Wednesday by Public Policy Polling, is in stark contrast to earlier polls showing Obama’s popularity was underwater. The Richmond Times Dispatch in October indicated that Obama trailed a generic Republican nominee by 7 points.
Public Policy Polling is affiliated with Democrats but has proven an accurate prognosticator in the past.
According to the poll, Obama would top Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, 48-42 and Gingrich, the recent frontrunner and former House Speaker, 50-43. He also leads both candidates among independents.
Obama has allocated considerable resources to Virginia, a state that has grown increasingly important to his reelection bid even as it trended strongly Republican since 2008. Obana swung through the state for a two-day visit to push his jobs plan, stopping in voter-friendly areas to rally his base.
A majority of the 600 voters, surveyed between Monday and Wednesday, had negative views of the two leading Republicans, with just 33 percent approving of Romney and 31 of Gingrich.
