Poll: Voters in Virginia Gov Race Sense Two Bad Candidates

Terry McAuliffe has opened a double-digit lead over Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in the latest Washington Post poll, even though a strong majority of the Democratic candidate’s supporters say there vote is merely against the Republican candidate.

McAuliffe leads Cuccinelli 51 percent to 39 percent heading toward Nov. 5 despite the GOP candidate’s 11th-hour campaign aid from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis, who’s pulling votes from both candidates in a race where many are frustrated by the options offered, is at 8 percent.

Among male voters, Cuccinelli has a 45 percent edge to McAuliffe at 44 percent. Among women, Cuccinelli is behind by 24 points.

Sixty-four percent of McAuliffe supporters say they’re casting a vote against Cuccinelli, while 44 percent of Cuccinelli backers say they’re voting against McAuliffe.

“A lot’s going on here with eight days to go. So today, we traveled the state with Senator Rand Paul from Lynchburg to Virginia Beach to Fairfax County, so we covered the three corners of the state, more or less, and reached hundreds of people with rallies and really turned them back out onto the streets, literally, to contact other voters and to really fire up our volunteers so we can be reaching people one on one,” Cuccinelli said last night on Fox Business Network. “These are low-turnout races in these odd years, and it’s critically important that people be talking to voters one at a time in person to turn them out.”

Cuccinelli said he could beat back Sarvis as a potential spoiler because “I’m the strongest pro-liberty elected official statewide in Virginia in my entire lifetime, whether it’s fighting the federal government over health care or the EPA, or whether it is fighting on behalf of one person. I’ve been to court personally to get wrongfully convicted felons exonerated. I’m arguing another one of those cases next month.”

“So whether it’s on behalf of one single person or whether it’s fighting the biggest threat to liberty in America, our own federal government, I’ve been there. So that — that’s a message that we’re driving hard, and it appeals way beyond just Republicans and libertarians,” he added. “There are a lot of independents and Democrats that appreciate someone who’ll stand up and fight for them.”