A new Washington Post poll shows President Barack Obama opening up a healthy lead over GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney in Virginia.
The poll, conducted Sept. 12-16, shows Obama with an eight-point lead in the state, 52-44, among likely voters, and a seven-point advantage, 50-43, among registered voters.
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released last week showed the president leading Romney by five points in Virginia among likely voters.
Some have dismissed the Post poll, which has an unusually high sampling of Democrats, with 35 percent of those polled self-identifying as Democrats compared to 26 percent Republicans.
“This Washington Post poll is seriously flawed as it assumes the Democrat turnout in 2012 will be 50 percent greater than it was in 2008 – it just doesn’t pass the laugh test,” said one Virginia GOP campaign official.
But Obama has maintained a slight edge in the state for several months, according to most polls, boosted in part by a significant advantage among women voters.
The Washington Post poll shows Romney leading by six points among men, but trailing by 19 points among women. Last week’s NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll showed Obama with a 24-point edge among female voters.
The Post poll of 1,104 Virginians has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.
