Ken Cuccinelli Hits 33% In New Rasmussen Poll

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With just two weeks left to go before Election Day, and early voting already occurring, the news for Ken Cuccinelli couldn’t possibly get any worse:

Democrat Terry McAuliffe has jumped to a 17-point lead over Republican Ken Cuccinelli in the Virginia gubernatorial race following the federal government shutdown that hit Northern Virginia hard and Hillary Clinton’s weekend visit to the state.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Virginia Voters finds McAuliffe with 50% support to Cuccinelli’s 33%. Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis is a distant third with eight percent (8%) of the vote. Three percent (3%) like some other candidate, while five percent (5%) remain undecided.

Since Rasmussen keeps their crosstabs behind a paywall, I can’t tell how the numbers among demographic subgroups are, but they can’t be good at all. I’d imagine the gender gap is just as bad as its been in other polls, if not worse, and that Cuccinelli is continuing to under perform among both Republicans and Independents. It’s also worth noting that this 33% is the worst Cuccinelli has polled in any poll since a January Roanoke College poll, and that poll showed him leading McAuliffe 33% to 27% with most voters undecided.

It’s worth noting that this is the largest lead that any poll has given McAuliffe, as well as the largest gap between the two candidates. We could be looking at voters finally making their choices in the final weeks of the campaign, or we could be looking at an outlier. Nonetheless, it’s clear that McAuliffe has a solid lead here, and more interestingly that Sarvis’s 8-10% of the vote remains relatively stable. It’s Cuccinelli is the one who seems to be slipping at a time when he should be closing the gap. That’s not a good sign for his campaign at all and, at this point, its hard to see how he can turn this race around.

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Stonetools says:

    Wow. If that’s true, the fat lady is warming up in the back room.
    Couldn’t happen to a more deserving wingnut. Hope that Jackson and Obenshain go down too. Hoping for a Democratic surge in the Virginiia legislature as well. A liberal can dream….

  2. Rbaron321 says:

    Really terrible given that he is running as an incumbent.

  3. Rob Prather says:

    Doug, as you noted on Twitter, I think, it is a Rasmussen poll. The Cooch will probably lose, but this seems like an outlier.

  4. Mikey says:

    Wow, that’s really bad for Cuccinelli. Even if everyone who says they’re voting for Sarvis jumps to Cuccinelli–which isn’t going to happen–the latter would still lose by nearly 10%.

    But that’s what happens when you’ve spent four years on the wrong side of where social issues are going in Virginia, and then your party engages in the most stupid and pointless of actions a month before the election.

  5. @Rob Prather: Isn’t Rasmussen usually very kind to conservatives? If they have this so far out of whack…

  6. Facebones says:

    Quick, time for another voter purge! How much “voter fraud” can Cooch find in Northern Virginia?

  7. grumpy realist says:

    *snork!* I think if I were the Cooch I’d be starting to look for anvils to tie around my neck and deep lakes to jump in.

  8. grumpy realist says:

    ….unless Rasmussen is trying to do a double-flip mental warfare stunt: “Hey, if we tell everyone Cooch is doing really badly and McAuliffe is doing wonderfully, all the Cooch voters will stampede out to vote to support him and McAuliffe supporters will stay home because they’ll feel their votes aren’t necessary!”

    The problem is, when you get this lopsided, it’s quite possible the Cooch voters will think “oh, what the heck, he isn’t going to win already, might as well not bother to vote….”

  9. Snarky Bastard says:

    You know what Cuccinelli needs to do to win — get more conservative as he is coming across as a squish now and Virginia is secretly pining away for the chance to vote for a True Conservative ™

  10. PJ says:

    It’s a Rasmussen poll. I need to see a couple of polls confirming what this poll shows.

  11. Scott says:

    @Christopher Bowen: rasmussen polls have been leaning quite liberal lately. It seems like a lot of polls are out of whack. For example, there has been a difference of 16 points between Obama approval polls taken at the same time. There is some weird stuff going on with polling right now.

  12. stonetools says:

    Hey, Rick Santorum to the rescue:

    Rick Santorum is signing up volunteers for a “strikeforce” to help Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in his bid to become governor of Virginia.

    Santorum’s PAC, Patriot Voices, is recruiting supporters to go door to door Nov. 1-3 in Virginia to plug the Republican candidate for governor on its website.

    Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/rick-santorum-ken-cuccinelli-virginia-98663.html#ixzz2iU1goFfJ

    Who says Cuccinelli can’t get his polls down to 25 per cent?

  13. Snarky Bastard says:

    @stonetools: I do as I don’t think he can get below 27%

  14. Mikey says:

    @stonetools:

    Santorum’s PAC, Patriot Voices, is recruiting supporters to go door to door Nov. 1-3 in Virginia

    Oh please please please come to my house…

  15. grumpy realist says:

    Maybe it’s that the college students have discovered what Cuccinelli wants to do about certain activities…..

  16. Ron Beasley says:

    The best thing to do with Rasmussen polls is ignore them.

  17. Scott O says:

    @stonetools:
    Santorum want’s to plug Cuccinelli?

  18. rudderpedals says:

    Has anyone linked yet to “Cuccinellii” as defined by Dan Savage?

  19. Gustopher says:

    Only 6% more to go before he hits the fabled lower bound! Go Cooch, go!