There's no doubt that the Nov. 3 election for Virginia governor is closer than it was a month ago, after the latest in a series of polls showing the gap between front-running Republican Bob McDonnell and Democratic rival Creigh Deeds closing to low single-digit percentages .
A survey conducted Sept. 23 by Insider Advantage/Majority Opinion Research gives McDonnell 48 percent and Deeds 44 percent.
The poll, of 602 registered voters, shows signs that Deeds is solidifying his partisan voting base. He enjoys more support among self-described Democrats (89 percent) than McDonnell does among self-described Republicans (79 percent), though McDonnell has a 22-point lead among independents.
Deeds is winning 90.5 percent support among African-American voters, an overwhelmingly Democratic constituency in Virginia and elsewhere, with only 4 percent undecided.
Deeds has a 16-point lead among voters aged 18 to 29, but McDonnell has a 20-point lead in the larger bloc of voters who are 65 and over.
McDonnell's lead has shrunk from the heights he reached during the summer, as Deeds has put an intense focus on the strongly conservative social policy views that McDonnell outlined in a graduate thesis he wrote two decades ago. McDonnell has repudiated some of those views and has accused Deeds of running a "backward" rather than forward-looking campaign.
CQ Politics presently rates the Virginia governor's race as Leans Republican.
To follow the 2009 and 2010 governors' races, check out CQ Politics' election map.
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