One year before Ohio voters decide whether or not to re-elect Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, less than half of them approve of his job performance, according to a survey conducted Oct. 14-20 by the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati.

According to the survey, 48 percent of respondents said they approve of Strickland's performance as governor and 37 percent said they disapprove. Six months ago, Strickland's numbers were 56 percent approve and 34 percent disapprove.

Barely two in five respondents (41 percent) said they approve of Strickland's handling of the economy, compared to 49 percent who said they disapprove.

The latest Fairleigh Dickinson University poll, conducted Oct. 22 through 28, finds the race for New Jersey governor where it's been for most of the month: deadlocked.

In a three-way race, Republican challenger Chris Christie leads Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine 41 percent to 39 among likely voters, including those leaning one way or the other. Independent Chris Daggett takes 14 percent of the vote. The margin of error is 4 percent.

Christie continues to lead among independent voters, at 37 percent, with Daggett at 27 percent and Corzine at 22 percent. Daggett receives the support of 13 percent each of Democrats and Republican likely voters.

A new poll from DailyKos and Research2000 confirms what election watchers have been saying for the past week -- the special House election in upstate New York is coming down to a race between Democrat Bill Owens and third-party candidate Doug Hoffman. The poll was conducted Oct. 26 to 28. The election is Nov. 3.

Among likely voters, Owens, an attorney, leads Hoffman, an accountant running on the state Conservative Party line, 33 to 32 percent, well within the 4 percentage point margin of error. Republican Dede Scozzafava lags behind at 21 percent. Fourteen percent remain undecided in the 23rd District, which takes in the Northeast corner of the state. Nine-term Rep. John M. McHugh resigned the seat in September to become Secretary of the Army.

Owens held relatively steady compared to the DailyKos poll released Oct. 23, which had him at 35 percent of the vote. The big swing is in the standing of Hoffman and Scozzafava, who continue their dramatic movement in opposite directions.

A Virginia Commonwealth University poll conducted Oct. 21-25 gives Republican Bob McDonnell an 18-point lead over Democrat Creigh Deeds, the latest survey to suggest that McDonnell is headed for a big victory in the once-close contest.

The survey of 625 voters who are likely to vote on Nov. 3 gives McDonnell 54 percent of the vote and Deeds 36 percent of the vote. By wide margins, Respondents prefer McDonnell to Deeds on the issues of handling economic development, state budget policy, transportation and education.

By a 56 percent to 29 percent margin, self-described political independents back McDonnell over Deeds.

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter's lead over his Democratic primary rival, Rep. Joe Sestak, has dwindled since summer, according to a Franklin and Marshall College poll conducted Oct. 20 to 25.

The survey found Specter ahead of Sestak by 12 points, 30 percent to 18 percent, but 47 percent said they were undecided.

In a similar poll from the end of August, Specter led Sestak by a larger margin, 37 percent to 11 percent, among polled registered Democrats.

Matched against likely Republican nominee Pat Toomey, a former congerssman, the latest poll of 529 registered voters put Specter in the lead by the narrowest of margins -- 33 percent to 31 percent, with 30 percent undecided. The margin of error was 4.3 points.

Specter switched parties after polls showed he would have a hard time winning a Republican primary against Toomey. But the Franklin and Marshall survey is the latest in a series of independent polls showing that voters aren't certain that Specter deserves a sixth Senate term.

CQ Politics currently rates the general election race Leans Democratic.

-- Shira Toeplitz

Sarah Palin may be rich, thanks to her book deal, but she's not popular, according to an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll conducted Oct. 22-25 and a CNN poll conducted Oct. 16-18.

CNN's poll found that a whopping seven in 10 Americans surveyed don't think that the Republican Party's 2008 vice presidential nominee is qualified to be president.

The NBC-Wall Street Journal poll tracks Palin's general popularity, and found that at a new low, with 11 percent of those surveyed having very positive feelings toward her and another 16 percent having somewhat positive feelings about her. Last October, polling registered voters, Palin's numbers were much higher -- 26 percent very favorable and 18 percent somewhat favorable.

As the Virginia governor's race enters its final week, Republican Bob McDonnell continues to hold a commanding lead over Democrat Creigh Deeds, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted Tuesday, when President Obama campaigned for Deeds.

The survey gave McDonnell, a former state Attorney General, a 54 percent to 41 percent advantage over Deeds, a state senator. That finding is consistent with the results of numerous other polls in the past week that gave McDonnell a double-digit lead.

According to the poll, which canvassed 1,000 registered voters who say they are likely to vote in the Nov. 3 election, 62 percent of respondents said that they had either a "very favorable" or "somewhat favorable" impression of McDonnell, compared to 30 percent who said they had an unfavorable impression of the Republican.

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine has taken a statistically significant lead over Republican Chris Christie, according to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted Oct. 20 to 26.

The poll found that the Democratic governor was favored by 43 percent of likely voters, compared with 38 percent who favored his GOP challenger. The margin of error was 2.8 percent.

Christie, a former U.S. attorney, led Corzine all summer, but was in a virtual tie -- 41 to 40 percent -- in Quinnipiac's last poll released Oct. 14. Independent Chris Daggett's support among likely voters seems locked in the low teens --13 percent of respondents said they would vote for him, a drop of one percent from the poll two weeks ago.

Pluralities of Americans say President Obama's plan to overhaul the health care system is a bad idea (42 percent) that will make health care worse (40 percent) and more expensive (47 percent), according to an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll taken Oct. 22-25.

Then there's another plurality: the 45 percent who say it should be passed anyway if the alternative is to keep the health care system as it is now. And 45 percent say setting up a government-run health insurance plan is "extremely important" to provide competition to private health insurance.

The margins in these poll findings are thin in places. To the 42 percent who think the president's health plan is a bad idea, 38 percent say it's a good idea. While little seems to crack through the 50-percent barrier, some aspects of the plan have considerably more acceptance than opposition. The 40 percent who think quality will decline are 19 percentage points ahead of those who think it will improve, and the 47 percent who say costs will go up are 34 percentage points ahead of those who say they will go down.

Just over a year before the Ohio gubernatorial election, Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland is virtually tied with his likely Republican opponent, former Rep. John Kasich, according to a University of Cincinnati Ohio Poll conducted Oct. 14-16.

Strickland was favored for re-election by 48 percent of the registered voters responding to the survey, while 47 percent said they would vote for Kasich to unseat him.

Strickland, also a former member of Congress, was elected governor as Ohio -- along with much of the industrial Midwest -- was heading into a recession that has been especially hard on heavy manufacturing.

A SurveyUSA poll conducted Oct. 25-26 of Virginia voters puts Republican Bob McDonnell up by 17 percentage points in next Tuesday's election for governor -- the fifth public poll in the past week that gives him a commanding, double-digit lead over Democratic nominee Creigh Deeds.

The SurveyUSA poll, which canvassed 502 voters who say they are likely to cast a ballot on Nov. 3, puts McDonnell up by 58 percent to 41 percent. McDonnell has a strong lead among political independents, 60 percent to 38 percent.

McDonnell is peeling away parts of the voter coalition that has boosted recent Democratic successes in Virginia, including Tim Kaine's election as governor in 2005 and Barack Obama's election as president in 2008.

SurveyUSA says that McDonnell is winning 21 percent of African-Americans, who usually give at least 90 percent of their votes to Democratic candidates; 16 percent of those who said they voted for Obama; 14 percent of self-identified Democrats; and 38 percent of those who describe their position on abortion as "pro-choice." McDonnell is a longstanding opponent of abortion, though he has largely ignored that issue and focused instead on the economy and transportation.

Is the Virginia governor's race a done deal? A Public Policy Polling survey conducted Oct. 23-26 is the most recent poll that puts Republican Bob McDonnell ahead of Democrat Creigh Deeds by a double-digit margin one week before Virginians vote on Nov. 3.

The PPP survey of 729 likely voters puts McDonnell at 55 percent and Deeds at 40 percent. McDonnell is carrying more self-identified Republicans (94 percent) than Deeds is winning Democrats (84 percent), and McDonnell has a commanding 59 percent to 34 percent lead among political independents.

Deeds continues to be hurt by a poor public image. Just 38 percent of respondents said they viewed him favorably, compared to 56 percent who said that about McDonnell. Just one in four voters thinks that Deeds is running a "positive" campaign, vs. 59 percent who think he is waging a "negative" campaign.

Independent candidate Chris Daggett is now drawing away more likely supporters of Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine than Republican Chris Christie with a week to go in New Jersey's governor's race, according to a survey of likely voters from Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling, conducted Oct. 23-26.

Daggett, who remains perhaps the biggest wild card in the race, has been steadily cutting into Christie's support over the last month, but when PPP asked likely Daggett voters who their second choice in the race is, 44 percent said Corzine, to 32 percent for Christie. The margin of error is 3.9 percent.

Daggett also now has a negative favorability rating, 31 percent favorable to 36 percent unfavorable, the poll found. Thirty-four percent had no opinion. That is a switch from the positive 30 percent to 24 percent favorable rating he had two weeks ago. And "the climb in people rating him unfavorably has come largely among Republicans," PPP noted in its analysis, surmising that it was the result of ads run by the Republican Governor's Association against Daggett.

Attorney General Martha Coakley continues to look strong against both her fellow Democratic candidates and against the likely Republican nominee in the Massachusetts Senate special election, according to a Western New England College Polling Institute survey conducted Oct. 18-22.

With just over a month to go before the Dec. 8 primary, Coakley leads the Democratic field with 37 percent among registered voters. In a bit of a surprise, the survey found investor and Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca running neck-and-neck with six-term U.S. Rep. Michael E. Capuano for second place. Pagliuca is at 14 percent and Capuano at 13 percent.

Alan Khazei, the co-founder of community service program City Year, trails at 4 percent of the vote. Twenty-six percent of voters were still undecided.

The favorable impression of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has been on a slow decline since the election and now stands at 42 percent, a 17-percentage-point drop since last November, according to a Gallup poll taken Oct. 16-19.

Gallup doesn't point to anything Biden has done to cause this decrease in his favorable rating, and he's had company in his declining popularity. The favorable rating for President Obama has taken a slide since the inauguration from 78 percent to 55 percent, and first lady Michelle Obama's favorable rating has waned from 72 percent in March to 61 percent now.

Where Biden seems to be lagging is how his popularity compares to the president's. Obama's average favorable rating for his first year in office is 63 percent, and Biden's is 45 percent. In the two previous administrations the popularity gap between president and vice president was narrower.

More bad news for Creigh Deeds: eight days before Virginians elect a new governor, the Democrat trails Republican Bob McDonnell by 11 percentage points, according to a Washington Post poll conducted Oct. 22-25.

The Post survey, conducted of 1,026 adults who say they are likely to vote in the Nov. 3 election, is the most recent evidence pointing to a possible landslide victory by McDonnell, who had a narrow lead in polls over the summer but has since put some distance between himself and Deeds.

McDonnell is winning 95 percent of self-identified Republicans and Deeds is winning 94 percent of self-identified Democrats, but McDonnell leads by 25 percentage points among political independents, a key swing constituency.

The standing of the special election candidates for New York's 23rd District remains steady, despite the race's daily fireworks, according to a new poll from liberal blog Daily Kos in conjunction with Research 2000, which was conducted Oct. 19 through 21.

The poll shows Democrat Bill Owens leading the three-way contest with 35 percent of the vote, with Republican Dede Scozzafava at 30 percent and Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman at 23 percent. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

That is nearly identical to a Siena College poll released Oct. 15 that showed Owens leading Scozzafava 33 percent to 29 percent, with Hoffman at 23 percent and a margin of error of 3.9 percent.

Independent candidate Chris Daggett's support now reaches 20 percent when likely voters leaning one way or the other are included in the count, says a new Rutgers-Eagleton poll of the New Jersey governors race, conducted Oct. 15-20.

That is bad news for Republican Chris Christie, who trails incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine by 3 percent, within the plus or minus 4.1 percent margin of error. Neither major party candidate breaks 40 percent of the vote share -- Corzine leads 39 tpercent to 36 percent for Christie -- underscoring the dissatisfaction voters feel with both candidates and driving support to the third-party option.

Corzine still has negative approval ratings -- 70 percent of likely voters rate his job performance fair or poor -- and his support has not wavered much in the polls. But Christie has seen a drop in support since the summer, and part of the reason has been Daggett's rise. Among those voters who told the Rutgers-Eagleton poll they were backing the independent, 34 percent said they would vote for Christie if Daggett were not in the race; 28 percent would back Corzine; and 24 percent said they wouldn't vote.

A second survey in recent days has Bob McDonnell seemingly pulling away from Creigh Deeds in the Nov. 3 election for Virginia governor.

A Public Policy Polling survey taken Oct. 16-19 gives Republican nominee McDonnell a 52 percent to 40 percent advantage over Democrat Deeds. PPP's survey three weeks ago had McDonnell had by just five points.

The PPP poll came on the heels of a SurveyUSA poll conducted Oct. 17-19 that pegged McDonnell's lead at 19 points. Most surveys in the past two months have given McDonnell a lead in the high single digits.

Former Florida state House Speaker Marco Rubio is cutting into Gov. Charlie Crist's lead in the Republican Senate primary, according to a Quinnipiac University Polling Institute survey conducted Oct. 12-18.

Crist led Rubio by 29 points in mid-August, but in the latest survey, the popular governor was ahead of Rubio 50 percent to 35 percent.

"Gov. Charlie Crist's lead ... has come back down to earth. His margin is still formidable, but obviously Marco Rubio's focus on convincing Republican conservatives that he, not Crist, is their kind of guy is bearing fruit," said Quinnipiac University Polling Institute Assistant Director Peter Brown.

Forty-four percent of Republican voters surveyed said they have a favorable opinion of Rubio while just 3 percent have an unfavorable opinion and 52 percent said they haven't heard enough about him.

A SurveyUSA poll conducted Oct. 17-19 gives Republican Bob McDonnell a commanding 19-point lead over Democrat Creigh Deeds in the Nov. 3 governor's race in Virginia, an outlier in a series of recent polls that have given McDonnell a steady but smaller edge.

The most recent survey, conducted of 595 adults who say they are likely to vote in the election in two weeks, gives McDonnell a 29-point lead among men and an 8-point lead among women.

Most polls have given McDonnell a healthy lead among political independents, though his 71 percent to 27 percent advantage among unaffiliated voters in this poll is staggering.

The outlook for Republicans in the New York governor's race hinges almost entirely on whether the party can lure former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani into the race, according to a poll conducted Oct. 14-18 by Siena College's Research Institute.

Giuliani's standing has risen among New York registered voters, the poll finds, with a 60 percent approval rating, near his 63 percent all-time high in the Siena poll. Giuliani now trails Attorney General Andrew Cuomo -- the Democrats' favored candidate -- by 7 percentage points, 43 to 50 percent, after several months of lagging in the double-digits.

And Giuliani would crush incumbent Democrat David A. Paterson by more than 20 percent, 56 to 33 percent. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.9 percent.

That stands in stark contrast to the polling performance by the GOP's one declared candidate, former Rep. Rick Lazio, who trails well behind Cuomo, 21 percent to 66 percent, and even lags behind the unpopular Paterson, 39 percent to 37. And Lazio has a net unfavorable rating -- 27 percent with 23 percent who view him favorably. Fifty percent of voters have no opinion of him.

But Lazio is starting to rally GOP support, nabbing the endorsement of new Suffolk County Republican party chair John Jay LaValle on Tuesday.

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine's rise in the polls continues, according to a survey conducted Oct. 15-18 by Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey, which now shows his re-election race against Republican Chris Christie tied at 39 percent among likely voters.

Independent Chris Daggett's vote share has jumped into the teens, a finding that echoes other polls released this month on the governor's contest, while 7 percent remain undecided. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percent.

The last Monmouth poll, released at the beginning of October, showed Corzine within the margin of error but still trailing Christie, 40 percent to 43 percent.

With just two weeks left until Virginians elect a new governor, Republican Bob McDonnell holds an 8 percentage-point lead over Democrat Creigh Deeds, according to a Clarus Research Group survey Oct. 18-19.

The survey shows political independents solidly favoring McDonnell, a former state Attorney General, over Deeds, a state senator.

While both candidates are winning overwhelming shares of voters who affiliate with their respective parties, voters who don't consider themselves either Republicans or Democrats are backing McDonnell by 50 percent to 36 percent.

The poll yielded more evidence that McDonnell has weathered attacks from Deeds and political surrogates, which claim that McDonnell has focused on a narrow conservative social-issues agenda.

Approval ratings for California's three political leading ladies have sunk, according to a Field Poll of registered voters conducted Sept. 18 to Oct. 5.

California voters' opinions of the job performance of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who represents California's 8th District, and Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer are at their lowest levels in the past two years.

Pelosi, who has become a poster child for liberal Democrats and the focus of constant GOP attack, has the lowest approval ratings of the three -- 34 percent to 44 percent disapproval. Twenty-two percent had no opinion. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.2 percent.

Iowa Republican Sen. Charles E. Grassley, who has been a titanic political figure in his state for decades, could face a competitive race for a sixth term -- particularly if Democrat Christie Vilsack chose to challenge him.

A Daily Kos/Research 2000 survey conducted Oct. 12-14 had Grassley with a 51 percent to 40 percent lead over Vilsack, a lawyer and teacher who is married to Tom Vilsack, President Obama's Agriculture secretary and Iowa's governor from 1999 through 2006.

There's been speculation that Vilsack is the unnamed "mystery candidate" that Iowa Democratic leaders have promised will soon announce a campaign and give Grassley his toughest re-election fight ever. Grassley has won at least 66 percent of the vote in each of his four Senate re-election campaigns, usually against hapless Democratic opposition.

The New Jersey electorate is still in flux about its choice for governor, according to findings in two new polls from the New York Times and Rasmussen Reports.

The New York Times poll, conducted Oct. 9 -13, found that 30 percent of likely voters might change their minds about their vote before the Nov. 3 election. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percent.

And the Rasmussen Reports poll found that 20 percent of Republican Chris Christie's backers and 27 percent of those supporting Democrat incumbent Jon Corzine said they are not certain about their choice, while a whopping 57 percent of those backing independent Chris Daggett said they may still change their minds. Rasmussen's margin of error was also plus or minus 4 percent.

The likely Democratic and Republican nominees for the Senate in Delaware next year are very well-regarded by voters and are locked in what would be a tight race, according to a Research 2000/Daily Kos poll conducted Oct. 12-14.

The survey gave Republican Rep. Michael N. Castle, who announced his candidacy last week, 46 percent of the vote in a hypothetical November 2010 matchup against Democratic state Attorney General Beau Biden, who had 45 percent.

Biden, who is interested in seeking the seat long represented by his father, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., has an approval rating of 65 percent and a disapproval rating of 29 percent. Castle, a former Delaware governor, has nearly identical ratings, with a 64 percent approval rating and a 30 percent disapproval rating.

Democrat Bill Owens has taken a narrow lead over Republican Dede Scozzafava in the special election in upstate New York’s 23rd District, according to a new Siena College poll conducted Oct. 11-13.

Owens, a lawyer and first-time candidate, is up 33 percent to 29 percent for Scozzafava, a longtime state assemblywoman, among likely voters, just outside the plus or minus 3.9 percentage point margin of error.

Two weeks ago, Scozzafava led Owens 35 percent to 27 percent in a Siena poll.

“Scozzafava’s seven-point lead has evaporated over the last two weeks, as voters have gotten to know all the candidates better,” said Siena pollster Steven Greenberg in a release.

The job approval ratings for President Barack Obama have inarguably declined since his Jan. 20 inauguration, as the soaring promises of change on which he was elected last November meet the rough-and-tumble of the legislative and political processes.

But Obama's problem in pressing his policy agenda has not been a serious erosion in his base of supporters, according to the latest survey conducted by the polling unit at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

It is, rather, a sharp increase in the numbers of those voters who now say they disapprove of how Obama is handling his responsibilities. And the poll suggests that one of the president's most pressing challenges is to win back the support of independent voters, who began the year predisposed to Obama by a wide margin but are now split roughly down the middle.

The Marist poll of 913 registered voters -- conducted Oct. 7, 8 and 12 and carrying a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points -- showed 53 percent of all respondents approved of Obama's job performance. That is down just a tad from 55 percent in the unit's August national poll and from 56 percent in a poll published April 8.

But the disapproval rate has jumped to 41 percent, from 30 percent in that April 8 poll and from 35 percent in August.

Pennsylvania voters are eager to replace party-switcher Arlen Specter in the Senate, according to a Susquehanna Polling and Research survey conducted Oct. 7 to 12.

Only 31 percent of survey respondents said that Specter -- running for the first time as a Democrat -- deserved re-election next year.

But they're also not embracing the better-known of Specter's Republican challengers. When asked to choose between Specter and former Rep. Pat Toomey, the result was a statistical tie -- 42 percent to 41 percent, with 12 percent of the registered voters surveyed saying they were unable to choose. Notably, Toomey did well with self-described swing voters -- he was the preferred choice of 43 percent of those who say they do not vote according to party, while Specter was favored by 36 percent of the ticket splitters.

Independent candidate Chris Daggett's growing popularity among independents has cut into Republican Chris Christie's lead in the New Jersey governor's race, but a majority of Daggett voters may change their minds about backing him, according to Quinnipiac University poll conducted Oct. 7 through 12.

Christie, who has led in the polls against Daggett and Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine since the spring, has seen a drop in his support among likely independent voters, which is contributing to a narrowing gap with Corzine. The Quinnipiac poll found that between September and October, Christie's rate of support among independents fell from 45 percent to 41 percent, with Corzine holding steady at 32 percent and Daggett jumping from 16 percent to 20 percent.

All told, Christie now leads Corzine just 41 to 40 percent among likely voters, within the plus or minus 2.8 percent margin of error, with Daggett coming in at 14 percent. In the September Quinnipiac poll, Christie led Corzine 43 to 39 percent and Daggett earned 12 percent of the vote. That confirms other recent polls that show the race in a virtual tie.

Creigh Deeds, the Democratic nominee for Virginia governor, must be wishing that some of the popularity of President Obama and outgoing Gov. Tim Kaine rubs off on him in the next three weeks.

A Rasmussen Reports survey conducted Oct. 12 showed that Deeds continues to trail Republican nominee Bob McDonnell ahead of the Nov. 3 election, even as narrow majorities of Virginia voters also approve of the job performances of Democrats Obama and Kaine.

The latest survey, which was conducted of 500 registered voters who say they are likely to vote, had McDonnell leading Deeds, 50 percent to 43 percent. That's consistent with recent surveys that have pegged McDonnell's lead in the high single digits.

Independent Chris Daggett could be the difference in the deadlocked race for New Jersey governor, according to a poll conducted Oct. 9 to 12 by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling.

Daggett, who had a strong performance in the first debate and won the endorsement of the Newark Star-Ledger on Sunday, is polling at 13 percent among likely voters, a plurality of whom said they would otherwise lean toward Republican challenger Chris Christie. Asked who their second choice would be, 48 percent of Daggett voters said Christie, compared to 34 percent who said Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine. Eighteen percent were unsure.

All told, Christie now leads Corzine by a statistically insignificant 40 percent to 39 percent, confirming several other recent polls that show the race narrowing to a virtual tie after Christie lead all summer. Corzine trailed by nine points in the September PPP poll.

Nevada voters are largely undecided about who they would like to see challenge Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid in 2010, but are showing signs that they are ready to see someone else in that job, according to a Mason-Dixon Polling & Research poll conducted Oct. 6-8.for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The poll found that 44 percent of registered Republicans were undecided about whom they would vote for in the party's primary. Twenty-three percent said they would support former state party Chairwoman Sue Lowden, while 21 percent said they backed Las Vegas real estate developer Danny Tarkanian.

Former state Assemblywoman Sharron Angle came in at 9 percent. Retired Marine Bill Parson, doctor Robin Titus, former radio talk show host Mike Wiley, Reno attorney Chuck Kozak, state Sen. Mark Amodei and New York City-based investor John Chachas all register at 1 percent or below among the primary electorate. The margin of error was plus or minus 6 percentage points.

The Republican primary for California Senate is up in the air with 59 percent of registered Republicans undecided about whom they will vote for next year, according to a Field Poll conducted Sept. 18 to Oct. 6.

Among those voters who do have an opinion, establishment favorite Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett Packard CEO, had 21 percent support while 20 percent back Chuck DeVore, a conservative assemblyman and official candidate. That represents a drop compared to March for Fiorina, who has opened an exploratory committee, but has yet to formally enter the race. Then, the Field poll had Fiorina at 31 percent and DeVore at 19 percent.

Since then, DeVore has been actively reaching out to the state's GOP base, including a big presence at the California Republican Party convention last month. Fiorina skipped the event to complete chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer. He also reported raising more than $330,000 in the quarter, hardly the $2.4 million incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer had in the bank mid-year, but a respectable showing for the underdog candidate.

Leaders in Congress have seen their approval ratings decline in the last six months, according to a poll taken Sept. 30-Oct. 4 by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

And maybe the unkindest cut of all is that the trend cuts across party lines, as Democrats and Republicans are losing faith in the leaders of their own parties.

Last March, the approval rate for the Democratic leadership in Congress was 47 percent, but now it has tumbled to 33 percent; in the same period approval for the GOP leadership has withered from 28 percent to 24 percent.

A Survey USA poll conducted Oct. 5-7 confirms that the New Jersey governor’s race is neck-and-neck between Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine and Republican Chris Christie.

With just 26 days until the election, Christie has a statistically insignificant lead over Corzine, 43 percent to 40 percent, among a mix of registered and likely voters. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percent.

That survey of 1,000 adults echoes findings from a Fairleigh Dickinson poll released earlier this week that found Corzine ahead of Christie 38 percent to 37 percent. Corzine had been trailing Christie all summer.

A Washington Post survey conducted Oct. 4-7 is the latest evidence that Republican Bob McDonnell has increased his lead in the Nov. 3 election for Virginia governor.

The poll, which was conducted of 1,001 likely voters, gave McDonnell a 9-point edge over Democrat Creigh Deeds, 53 percent to 44 percent. Three weeks ago, the Post's survey had McDonnell ahead by just 51 percent to 47 percent.

By wide margins, respondents said they trust McDonnell more than Deeds to handle issues such as the economy, transportation, the state budget and energy.

North Carolina Sen. Richard M. Burr’s approval ratings remain anemic, but he is performing better against six prospective Democratic candidates in a new survey conducted Oct. 2-4 by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling.

In the survey of 638 North Carolina voters, 36 percent approve of Burr’s job performance, compared to 35 percent who disapprove. Twenty-nine percent remain unsure about Burr, who is serving his first term in the Senate. That is slightly lower than the PPP’s results from September, when the approval-disapproval spread was 38 percent to 32 percent. The poll’s margin of error is 3.8 percent.

There’s no clear leader in the California Republican primary for governor and nearly half of registered GOP voters are unsure about whom they support, according to a Field Poll conducted Sept. 18 to Oct 5.

Former Ebay CEO Meg Whitman leads in a three-way match-up with 22 percent of the vote, former five-term Rep. Tom Campbell earns 20 percent and state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner comes in at 9 percent. Another 49 percent of Republicans said they were undecided. The margin of error was 4.5 percent.

All three remain unknown to the majority of California voters - 68 percent have no opinion of Whitman, 61 percent no opinion of Poizner and 59 percent no opinion of Campbell.

The prospective Democratic candidates are much better known to the electorate - approximately 60 percent of voters had an opinion of Attorney General Jerry Brown or San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

As Wisconsin's 2010 Senate race now stands, Democratic incumbent Russ Feingold appears a prohibitive favorite in his bid for a fourth term.

But the race would become a blockbuster if Tommy G. Thompson, a former four-term Republican governor, were to jump into the race. That's according to a poll of 700 Wisconsin adults conducted Sept. 27-29 by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.

The poll showed that 43 percent of respondents would back Thompson, who was governor from 1987 until 2001, when he resigned to become secretary of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush. Feingold received support from 39 percent in the hypothetical matchup with Thompson.

Republican officials who oppose most of President Obama's policy agenda often refer to poll numbers that show doubt or outright opposition among many voters toward the administration's economic policies. So it might seem that Republicans who favor a major increase of the American military forces in Afghanistan are getting ahead of public opinion, in light of a new Quinnipiac University survey conducted Sept. 29-Oct. 5.

The survey found that fewer than two-fifths of respondents favor a troop increase.

A look below the top-line numbers shows, however, that GOP leaders are voicing a majority opinion within their own party's base on Afghanistan, as on other contentious issues.

A pair of new polls show the public's opinion of Congress is back in the cellar near where it began the year.

Despite what has happened with the economy, people seem to be in a reasonably good mood, according to an AP-GfK poll taken Oct. 1-5 in which 78 percent of the respondents said they were happy - 34 percent considering themselves "very happy" and 44 percent who say they're "somewhat happy."

And they like President Obama, whose approval rating for the way he's handling his job was 56 percent - about half of which came from people who strongly approved of his work as president.

Not so much for Congress, though, where the approval rating is 33 percent (just 3 percent saying they strongly approve), and the disapproval rating is 64 percent - more than half of whom say they strongly disapprove.

Adults in this country still are not sold on whether they want the government to compel changes in the way health insurance behaves and health care is delivered, according to a Gallup poll taken Oct. 1-4.

When asked how they would advise their member of Congress to vote on legislation to overhaul the health care system, 40 percent said they would ask for a vote in favor of changing the health care system, 36 percent would want their member to vote against it, and 25 percent has no opinion.

When people who leaned one way or the other on the question were added, a slim majority, 51 percent, would support overhauling the health care system, 41 percent would oppose it, and 8 percent had no opinion. Both counts - with and without leaners - showed modest shifts in favor of passage from a similar Gallup poll taken in early September.

The New Jersey governor’s race is in a virtual deadlock, according to a new poll of likely voters by Fairleigh Dickinson University conducted Sept. 28 to Oct 5.

Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine leads Republican challenger Chris Christie 38 percent to 37 percent, within the 4 percentage-point margin of error. Independent Chris Daggett is at 17 percent - including 20 percent of likely Democrats and 11 percent of likely Republicans.

It is the first time Corzine has led Christie, a former U.S. attorney, in the Farleigh Dickinson poll since January.

In the “who’s to blame for this lousy economy?” sweepstakes, more than half of voters believe former President George W. Bush should bear the blame, while more than a third say it’s President Obama’s fault, says a Rasmussen survey conducted Oct. 2-3.

In the telephone poll of 1,000 likely voters, 55 percent blamed the current financial situation on a recession which began under Bush, while 37 percent said the troubles stem from the policies President Obama has put in place since taking office.

Most voters trust their own judgment more than the president’s when it comes to economic issues affecting the nation: 59 percent trust themselves, 29 percent trust Obama more and 12 percent are not sure.

American adults seem to find themselves in the same quandary as their government over what to do about Iran and its flirtation with becoming a military nuclear power, according to a poll taken for the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press Sept. 30-Oct. 4.

On the one hand, public opinion in this country supports direct negotiations (63 percent).

On the other hand, they don't think it will work (64 percent).

Even more of them support ratcheting up sanctions on Iran (78 percent).

But they're not sure that will work either (32 percent yes, 56 percent no, 11 percent don't know).

A quarter of New Hampshire voters don't know who they favor in next year's Senate race, according to a University of New Hampshire Granite State Poll conducted Sept. 25 to Oct. 2.

Among voters with a preference, though, former state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, a Republican, had a 7-point lead over Democratic Rep. Paul W. Hodes, the survey found.

Ayotte led Hodes 40 percent to 33 percent -- a slight increase over her 4 point advantage in a June poll.

Majorities of American adults think the war in Afghanistan cannot be won and that its most likely conclusion would be no conclusion at all, according to a poll by Clarus Research Group conducted Oct. 1-4.

Sixty-eight percent of the respondents said the United States will not win or lose the war which will go on without resolution, Clarus said.

Sixty-one percent of Democrats want to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, while 17 percent want to send in additional troops. Fifty-four percent of Republicans and 47 percent of independents are in favor of sending in more troops.

The poll was based on telephone interviews with 1,000 adults nationwide and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway appears to have the best shot at defeating either of the two Republican candidates who hope to fill the Senate seat being vacated by the retirement of Republican Sen. Jim Bunning, according to a Rasmussen Research Reports poll taken Sept. 30.

Conway, a Democrat, holds a slender 42 percent to 38 percent lead over eye surgeon Rand Paul, who is running for the Republican nomination for Senate and is tied at 40 percent with in a trial heat with Republican Secretary of State Trey Grayson, according to the Rasmussen survey.

Both Grayson and Paul hold slight leads over Democratic Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo, 44 percent to 37 percent and 43 percent to 38 percent, respectively.

Far from suggesting that the Virginia governor's race is tightening, a SurveyUSA poll conducted Oct. 2-4 indicates that Republican Bob McDonnell has a solid lead over Democrat Creigh Deeds four weeks before the Nov. 3 vote.

The poll of gives McDonnell, a former state attorney general, a 54 percent to 43 percent advantage over Deeds, a state senator. Other polls have suggested that McDonnell has a lead over Deeds that is in the single digits.

There's a large gender gap in the race, with McDonnell leading Deeds by 26 percentage points among men and trailing by 2 percentage points among women. Deeds is running only about even with McDonnell among women, despite pounding McDonnell over some strongly conservative views about women and the family that he articulated in a graduate thesis two decades ago.

In Wisconsin, voters don't know much about the candidates who want to succeed Gov. Jim Doyle, according to a poll conducted Sept. 27-29.

The telephone survey by the University of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute found that serving as lieutenant governor didn't help Democrat Barbara Lawton become a household name; more than 37 percent of those polled said they'd never heard of her.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a former member of Congress, has not said whether he is running for the Democrats' gubernatorial nomination, but if he gets into the race, he'll be in the same boat as Lawton -- a third of those polled said they'd never heard of Barrett.

Looking at the Republicans, 36 percent of those surveyed said they'd never heard of Scott Walker, the Milwaukee County executive, while 39 percent weren't familiar with the name of former Rep. Mark Neumann.

Among the people who did have an idea who those politicians are, the favorite for the Democratic nomination was Barrett -- 38 percent said that's who they would choose if the primary were held today -- and the favorite for the GOP nomination was Walker, who was the choice of 39 percent of those polled.

The survey of 700 adults had an error margin of 3.8 percentage points.

Minnesota governor candidate Marty Seifert took the lead in the first statewide measure of its Republican 2010 governor race, the Grand Forks Herald reported Sunday.

Siefert captured 37 percent of the vote in a GOP state convention straw poll, at the top of a nine-candidate field.

In the No. 2 spot was state Rep. Tom Emmer, getting 23 percent in the nonbinding poll. In third with 14 percent was former State Auditor Pat Anderson.

Seifert, who resigned as Republican House leader to run for governor, said he was surprised to receive such a strong showing from both urban and rural convention delegates.

Public opinion on abortion has shifted toward a less liberal attitude in the last year, leaving the country evenly divided on the issue and fewer liberal Democrats saying abortion is a critical issue, according to polling done in August by the Pew Research Center.

"The shift in opinion is broad-based, appearing in most demographic groups in the population," Pew said in its analysis of the polling data.

The polling shows a 4 percentage point rise in support over the last year for making abortion illegal in all or most cases, now holding 45 percent, while support for keeping it legal in almost all cases stands at 47 percent, Pew said. It also showed a 6 percentage point bump (to 41 percent) to make it more difficult to obtain an abortion, as well as a six-point boost in people (now at 65 percent) who think it would be good to reduce the number of abortions.

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine is closing in on Republican challenger Chris Christie, a month out from the 2009 election, according to a new poll by Monmouth University-Gannett New Jersey conducted Sept. 24 to 29.

The tightening race adds further weight to the candidates' first debate, at 8 p.m. in Trenton, N.J.

The Monmouth-Gannett poll found that Christie now leads Corzine 43 percent to 40 percent, within the 4.3 percent margin of error. Independent Christopher Daggett snags 8 percent of the vote.

That echoes poll results from Quinnipiac University released Wednesday that showed Christie ahead of Corzine 43 percent to 39 percent.

Though the Republican Party still has a poor image among the electorate, it has narrowed the Democratic Party's longstanding advantage in political party identification in large part because of an improved showing among political independents.

That's the major finding of an analysis from the Gallup Organization, which conducted five polls of more than 5,000 adults in the third quarter of 2009.

The analysis said that 48 percent of respondents identified as Democrats and 42 percent as Republicans -- a six-point edge that is the Democrats' smallest advantage since early 2005, when President George W. Bush began his second term.

Throughout 2006, 2007 and 2008, when the Republican Party's image suffered as a result of Bush's unpopularity, the Democrats opened up a double-digit advantage in party identification.

According to Gallup's most recent polling, 35 percent of respondents said they are Democrats and another 13 percent described themselves as independents who "lean" Democratic.

Just 27 percent of respondents said they are Republicans, but the 15 percent share of political independents who lean Republican is the highest such figure in at least four years.

In each of the 18 previous quarters, there were more Democratic-leaning independents than Republican-leaning independents.

Good news for Pennsylvania Republicans in a Quinnipiac University poll conducted Sept. 22-28: former Rep. Pat Toomey, their likely nominee for a 2010 Senate seat, is running essentially even with either Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter or his top primary challenger, Rep. Joe Sestak.

The survey of 1,100 registered voters puts Toomey at 43 percent and Specter at 42 percent in a hypothetical November 2010 matchup of the two men who battled in a 2004 Republican primary. Specter switched parties in April.

In the other general election matchup that the survey tested, Toomey had 38 percent and Sestak had 35 percent.

Most American adults think providing health insurance coverage for themselves and their families is a matter of personal responsibility, rather than a service that should be performed by the government, according to a Gallup poll taken Sept. 11-13.

Sixty-one percent of respondents said it should be a matter of personal responsibility, and 37 percent said it should be the responsibility of the federal government. Broken down by political party, Republicans (89 percent to 10 percent) and independents (64 percent to 34 percent) said it is a personal matter, but Democrats (62 percent to 35 percent) think the federal government is primarily responsible.

Gallup noted that other polls have shown differing sentiment, but the results depend on how the question is framed.