A 'landslide' in the making?

Two new polls showing Republican Bob McDonnell with sizable leads over Democrat Creigh Deeds less than one week before Election Day have added to the chatter among Virginia politicos and pundits that the gubernatorial race is effectively over.

Rasmussen Reports has McDonnell up 13 points (54-41 percent, with 4 percent undecided), while a Virginia Commonwealth University survey out Wednesday puts the Republican's margin at 18 points (54-36 percent, with 11 percent undecided).

Those polls come on the heels of two surveys out Tuesday -- one from Public Policy Polling and another from The Washington Post -- which also gave McDonnell double-digit leads days before the Nov. 3 election.

While methodologies differ from poll-to-poll -- some rely on live telephone interviews, others use automated phone systems -- their results continue to suggest that McDonnell is poised for a dominating win.

"I think it's very likely to be a landslide," said University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato, who defined a landslide as an election in which the victor gets more than 55 percent of the vote.

Former Gov. Jim Gilmore was the last gubernatorial candidate to score a "landslide" victory by receiving 55.8 percent of the vote in the 1997 election with former Lt. Gov. Don Beyer.

At a rally with President Barack Obama in Norfolk Tuesday, Deeds expressed optimism that a win remained within reach.

However unlikely that outcome may be, Sabato conceded, anything's possible.

"There's always a chance. But I don't see how," he said about a possible come-from-behind Deeds win. "Something could come out between now and then. Obama's visit may have energized African Americans, and pigs may fly by my window."

-- Julian Walker

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