Obama lift credited for Gregoire poll surge
Rossi camp thinks race a dead heat
OLYMPIA – A new poll released Monday suggests that Gov. Chris Gregoire may finally be getting something that for months eluded her: a political updraft from fellow Democrat Barack Obama.
The university-based Washington Poll showed Gregoire 6 percentage points ahead of Republican challenger Dino Rossi. Some 51 percent of voters said they were at least leaning toward Gregoire. For Rossi, it was 45 percent.
Jill Strait, a spokeswoman for Rossi, said the campaign doesn’t think the numbers are accurate.
“The race is extremely close,” she said. “We’re feeling good, we’re feeling confident. We think the race is a statistical dead heat.”
The poll also showed Obama with an overwhelming lead in the presidential race in Washington, 55 percent to Republican John McCain’s 34 percent.
Most polls this summer and fall showed Gregoire, a first-term incumbent, barely ahead of Rossi. One exception: the Elway Poll, which last week suggested that Gregoire has a 51 percent to 39 percent lead over Rossi.
Although not as lopsided, the Washington Poll suggests that Gregoire’s getting an 11th-hour lift.
“The new data suggest that Gregoire is benefiting tremendously from Obama’s popularity in Washington,” said University of Washington political science professor Matt Barreto, director of the Washington Poll. Gregoire’s February decision to endorse Obama in the Democratic primary, he said, “is now paying dividends” among Obama supporters.
He noted, however, that there’s a week left in the race, and said Rossi’s run a very effective campaign.
“We could still see the race tighten down the stretch,” said Barreto.
The 600-person poll also showed a strong Cascade-curtain effect. Among Eastern Washingtonians, Rossi did much better, with support from 61 percent of respondents to Gregoire’s 34 percent. But in the Puget Sound region, Gregoire’s leading, 57 percent to Rossi’s 40 percent.
The new numbers come amid a flurry of late spending by the Gregoire and Rossi camps. Both – as well as their political allies – are running a heavy schedule of TV ads. And Rossi’s sprinting around Washington in a “Road to Victory Tour” that has him hop-scotching among up to five cities a day for the next week.