A new survey for the Washington Post released last night contains some bad news for Democrat Creigh Deeds: A clear downward trend for his chances of victory in next month’s gubernatorial election. The bottom line is a nine-point lead for Republican Bob McDonnell — 53 to 44 percent.

Deeds has lost four points since the Post last polled, while McDonnell gained two points. This trend could augur an election-day repudiation of Deeds’s “abortion strategy,” which appears to have had diminishing returns and may even have created a backlash. For the last month, Deeds has advertised heavily seeking to portray McDonnell as a fundamentalist for his pro-life views, based on a college thesis McDonnell wrote 20 years ago.