McAuliffe, Moran tied in new poll

Many Virginians are unsure how they will vote in this year's Democratic gubernatorial primary, and the declared voter support is evenly split between Terry McAuliffe and Brian Moran, two of the three candidate for the party nomination, according to a poll released Tuesday.

The Public Policy Polling survey found that McAuliffe, a former Democratic National Committee chairman, and Moran, a former state delegate from Alexandria, are tied with 18 percent support among likely primary voters.

The third candidate in the race for the nomination, State Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, has 11 percent support.

According to the poll, Moran has the highest favorability ratings among respondants, while McAuliffe is the most well known.

Despite running statewide in 2005 for Attorney General, a race he lost by about 350 votes to current Attorney General Bob McDonnell, Deeds is the least well known of the three, the poll found.

"What this poll shows is that the contest for the Democratic nomination is wide open," Dean Debnam, Public Policy Polling president said in a written statement announcing the poll's findings. "None of the candidates are that well known and there is no clear front runner at this point."

The poll surveyed 998 likely voters Jan. 30-Feb. 1 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.19 percent.

It was released the same day that McDonnell, who is running unopposed for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, announced that he will resign his office, effective Feb. 20, to focus on his campaign.

-- Julian Walker

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