Here Are The Results of SurveyUSA Election Poll #10342

Geography Surveyed: Virginia
Data Collected: 09/24/2006 - 09/26/2006
Release Date: 09/27/2006 11:15 AM ET
Sponsors: WDBJ-TV Roanoke, WUSA-TV Washington, DC

Allen-Webb VA Senate Race Rocked By Controversy: In an election for the United States Senate in Virginia today, 9/27/06, incumbent Republican George Allen maintains a slight 49% to 44% advantage over Democrat challenger James Webb, according to a SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for WUSA-TV Washington DC and WDBJ-TV Roanoke. Since an identical SurveyUSA poll 2 weeks ago, Allen is up 1 point and Webb is down 1 point. BUT: day-to-day data shows that the race is volatile. On Sunday 9/24, after Allen had been accused of using racial slurs in college, he led by 7 in SurveyUSA Sunday-only data . On Monday 9/25, after Allen strongly denied the accusations, he led by 11 in SurveyUSA Monday-only data. On Tuesday 9/26, after more people corroborated the accusations, Allen trailed Webb by 3 points, in Tuesday-only data. The 5-point Allen advantage shown here, when the 3 days of data are combined and averaged, cannot be considered stable. Earlier polls had shown the race narrowing after publicity over comments Allen made to a Webb campaign worker. Today, Allen gets 87% of Republican votes. Webb gets 86% of Democrat votes. Independents are split. Allen leads by 12 points among men, trails by 1 point among women. Allen leads by 16 in Rural VA, leads by 10 in Suburban VA. Webb leads by 16 in Urban VA. The election is in 6 weeks, on 11/7/06. The Republicans have a 10-seat majority in the U.S. Senate. Allen's seat had been considered safely Republican, and Allen himself had been widely considered to be a Republican candidate for President of the United States in 2008. Allen, a former Virginia Governor, was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000.

Filtering: 1,200 Virginia adults were interviewed 9/24/06 - 9/26/06. Of them, 979 were registered to vote. Of them, 628 were judged to be "likely" voters. Crosstabs reflect Likely Voters.