Ken Cuccinelli Bounces Back Against Terry McAuliffe in Virginia

A poll of likely voters released on Wednesday finds Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has closed the gap against former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe in next weeks Virginia gubernatorial election. Quinnipiac University finds McAuliffe in the lead with 45 percent with Cuccinelli right behind him with 41 percent. Libertarian Robert Sarvis continues to poll strong, taking 9 percent.

Polls released last week showed McAuliffe starting to pull away from the Republican.

"State Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is nipping at Terry McAuliffe's heels as the race to be Virginia's next governor enters the final week of the campaign," said Peter Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "It goes without saying that turnout is the key to this race and the harshly negative tone of the campaign is the kind that often turns off voters."

Brown said Sarvis could lose support in the final week which could prove decisive.

"With the race this close, the final decision by the roughly one in 10 voters who are supporting Libertarian Robert Sarvis has become even more critical, Brown said. Nationally, third-party candidates often lose support in the end as voters enter the voting booth and back someone they consider the lesser of two evils. Only six in 10 Sarvis supporters say they definitely will vote for him. Almost nine in 10 McAuliffe and Cuccinelli backers are committed.

"Cuccinelli seems to be benefitting from Republicans coming home, but McAuliffe still does a little better among Democrats than Cuccinelli does among GOPers, Brown added. And, McAuliffe leads among independents, perhaps the key voting group. It is difficult to see Cuccinelli winning if he can't run at least even or slightly ahead among independents. Here, too, Sarvis' voters matter greatly since the Libertarian is getting 16 percent of independents, but only 9 percent overall."

The poll of 1,182 likely voters was taken from Oct. 22-Oct. 28 and had a margin of error of +/- 2.9 percent.