Summertime -- and the political polling is indecisive.
The latest poll by Rasmussen Reports rates the Virginia governor's race a tossup, with Republican Bob McDonnell holding a statistically insignificant lead over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds.
McDonnell is favored by 43 percent to 41 percent for Deeds. But the contest could be viewed as a dead heat because McDonnell's advantage is within the poll's margin of error -- plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
Rasmussen Reports queried 500 likely voters by telephone on Monday. It found that 12 percent were undecided between McDonnell and Deeds, and 3 percent favored other candidates.
The survey, coming as the Virginia contest slips into a summer hiatus dominated by little-noticed but important fundraising and organizational chores, echoes the recent results of a competing survey.
The most recent survey by Public Policy Polling showed McDonnell had the support of 49 percent of those polled, and Deeds had 43 percent. That finding also was within the variable for error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, suggesting that four months before the election, the race could be too close to call.
The latest poll by Rasmussen Reports indicates that Deeds' modest post-primary bounce has evaporated.
On June 11 -- two days after Deeds' upset victory for the Democratic nomination -- he led McDonnell by six percentage points, 47 percent to 41 percent.
While the spread was within in the margin of error, it nonetheless suggested Deeds had benefited from higher name recognition, coming off a contentious three-way primary.
In last month's findings by Rasmussen, 10 percent were undecided, and 2 percent preferred other candidates.
McDonnell is a former attorney general and ex-member of the House of Delegates from Virginia Beach.
Deeds is a state senator from Bath County. He lost to McDonnell for attorney general in 2005 by 360 votes. It was the closest statewide election ever in Virginia.
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