Poll: Bob McDonnell’s Lead Slips in Virginia Race

The new Public Policy Polling survey of Virginia finds Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell slipping narrowly in a race he’s dominated for months. He’s up by five percentage points, just outside the margin of error; in the last poll, he was up by seven points.

It’s of a piece of more marginally good news for Democrats in this year’s two statewide elections, in Virginia and New Jersey. A month ago, both races looked to be slipping out of Democrats’ grasp. The Pollster.com average has McDonnell up 6.1 points, while Republican candidate Chris Christie leads Gov. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) by 5.6 points in a three-way race.

The unalloyed good news for Republicans is that they hold strong leads in the races for Virginia lieutenant governor and attorney general. Their AG candidate, Ken Cuccinelli, is a charismatic social conservative whom Democrats failed to defeat in a 2007 state Senate election; if he wins this November, he’s the frontrunner for governor in 2013.