Research 2000 Poll: McDonnell 51%-Deeds 43%

The just-released Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll of Virginia is much closer than either SurveyUSA (55%-40% McDonnell) or Public Policy Polling (51%-37% McDonnell). In this poll, it's an 8-point lead for McDonnell, 51%-43%, over Deeds (compared to a 45/44 lead for McDonnell in the June 15-17 Research 2000 poll). Other interesting tidbits from the poll.

*McDonnell has a 57/38 favorable rating, compared to 46/40 for Deeds. Barack Obama has a 51/44 favorable rating in Virginia.
*McDonnell leads by 17 points (57/40) among men but trails (45/46) among women.
*McDonnell has 88% of Republicans supporting him, while Deeds has just 77% of Democrats.
*Among independents, it's McDonnell 55%-Deeds 40%.
*McDonnell leads among whites (65/33), but Deeds leads among blacks (72/6), Hispanics (69/25) and "other" (71/24).
*McDonnell leads among older voters (particularly those over 45) while Deeds leads among younger voters (18-29). Among voters aged 30-44, McDonnell has a slight (48/44) edge.
*Deeds is winning NOVA 65/27, while McDonnell's winning "rest of state" 60/35.

UPDATE: From the DKos analysis.

Deeds is moving backwards while McDonnell is holding steady -- not a trend that points to victory. And unlike the primary, Deeds won't be able to win by laying low and watching his opponents nuke each other. He's got to reverse his favorability slide while chipping away at McDonnell's. So far, that's obviously not happening.

GOP Hurls Worst Insult at Tom Perriello Ever: "Daily Kos Cred"

Even worse than the usual adjectives - "socialist," "liberal," "tax and spend liberal," "commie," "Democrat" (without the "ic" at the end), "terrorist," etc. - Republicans use to "insult" Democrats, there's one that is particularly even by their own standards. Here it is, in reference to Tom Perriello's courageous, principled vote for clean energy, getting off of Saudi oil, and protecting the environment by capping carbon emissions.

“Tom Perriello’s national energy tax vote was the defining moment of his short career,” NRCC spokesman Andy Sere said, adding that voters in his district who once thought of him as “that nice young man … is actually a smug globalist who cares more about his Daily Kos cred than the farmers, laborers and middle-class families in his district.”

So, there you have it the worst insults they can possibly hurl at Tom Perriello include "smug" (I know Tom very well, and he's the last person I'd call "smug"), a "globalist" (you mean, like when he fought to bring down vicious, war-criminal dictators in Africa?), and - the absolutely most heinous insult of them all - having "Daily Kos cred." I mean, my god, can you imagine the equivalent on the Republican side, having "Bill O'Reilly cred" or "Glenn Beck cred" or "Rush Limbaugh cred" or "Michelle Malkin cred?" Yeah, it would be horrible and I know that no Republican would ever be caught dead appearing on any of those shows, blogs, etc., or even accepting praise from those folks (note: just to be clear, I am NOT drawing an equivalency between Daily Kos on the left and Bill/Beck/Rush/Michelle on the right; overall, Daily Kos is mainstream progressive and Democratic, while the right wingers I mentioned are John Bircher nutso).

More substantively, since when does voting for protecting "god's creation" count as left wing? Since when does voting to create millions of good, American jobs that can't be outsourced count as "liberal," "socialist," whatever? And since when does wanting to break America's "oil addiction" and get us off of dependence on Saudi Arabia (source of 15 or 19 hijackers on 9/11, I'd remind everyone) - something George W. Bush, that far-left loon - talked about doing, count as anything but patriotic? That's the kind of "cred" Tom Perriello has, in addition to his deep concern and hard work for the people of his district. If Republicans want to run another far-right-wing, flat-earth, anti-science, racist/homophobic/xenophobic candidate like Virgil Goode (or even Virgil himself), I say "bring it on" - we'll match Tom's cred against your guy's cred any day of the week.

UPDATE: Check out the Roanoke Times editorial, which says that Tom Perriello's "[c]limate change vote was a matter of national security, not politics." The Roanoke Times concludes that "A principled stand will beat obstructionism almost every time." I hope they're right.

Daily Kos/R2K Poll: McAuliffe 36%, Moran 22%, Deeds 13%

Here is the link to the new Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll on Virginia's Democratic gubernatorial primary race. The bottom line numbers (April 6-8 results in parentheses):

Terry McAuliffe: 36% (19%)
Brian Moran: 22% (24%)
Creigh Deeds: 13% (16%)

That's a 17 point gain by Terry since early April, a 2 point decline by Brian, and a 3 point decline by Creigh.

And here's some commentary by Kos:

*"A pretty dramatic gain for McAuliffe in the last six weeks for an election that will be decided in about three weeks (June 9), while Deeds and Moran essentially tread water."

*"...while Moran has remained steady and while Deeds has edged back, McAuliffe has managed to move his favorability numbers forward despite an increasingly negative primary."

*"While the Dems have all lost ground in their favorability ratings, McDonnell has been able to stay above the fray, edging his slight higher (a net +3). And at +20, he has a big advantage over the the -1 net favorability ratings of Moran and Deeds, and -3 of McAuliffe."

In other words, when this primary is over, we're going to have our work cut out for us beating Bob McDonnell. Certainly we can do it, but we're going to have to work out butts off.

P.S. What ever happened to Creigh Deeds' momentum, as indicated in yesterday's SurveyUSA poll?