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A pair of polls released yesterday show Libertarian candidate Robert C. Sarvis polling at or near double digits in the three-way race for the Virginia governorship.
A survey conducted by the Emerson College Polling Society showed the Libertarian Party nominee polling ten percent of the vote, including a 17 percent share among independent voters. The same poll showed Democrat Terry McAuliffe with a 45% to 35% lead over Republican Ken Cuccinelli. Eleven percent of those surveyed were undecided.
The Emerson poll of 653 registered voters also revealed that Virginia voters aren’t particularly enamored with either major-party candidate. A majority of those polled gave State Attorney General Cuccinelli a 53% unfavorable rating while 43% rated his Democratic rival similarly. Both men had only a 31 percent favorable rating.
The Emerson survey, conducted between August 23 and August 28, has a margin of error of 3.8 percent.
A Public Policy Polling survey, also released on Thursday, gave the surging Sarvis a solid nine percent of the vote in Virginia. The PPP poll showed McAuliffe leading Cuccinelli by seven percentage points — 44% to 37% — with nine percent of those surveyed undecided.
Like the Emerson poll, the PPP survey showed Virginians giving both major-party candidates unusually high disapproval ratings with a staggering 54 percent of voters rating the socially-conservative Cuccinelli unfavorably. McAuliffe wasn’t far behind, with 48 percent of those surveyed giving him an unfavorable rating.
Entering the race only four months ago, the 36-year-old Sarvis has quietly changed the dynamics of what many observers believed would be the marquee political match-up of 2013. Few, if any, expected this to be a genuine three-way race, but if the little-known Libertarian continues to make the kinds of strides demonstrated in yesterday’s polls, the contest in the Old Dominion could get really interesting.
Both McAuliffe and Cuccinelli are terrible candidates for their respective parties. Sarvis is a fiscal conservative and a social moderate, which in my opinion is the best of both worlds. There is no better time than this election to show both major parties that they are out of touch and that their candidates suck! SARVIS 2013! http://www.robertsarvis.com
Bout time someone had a little bit of guts in Virginia to stand up to the 2 Schmucks in a Blanket System. Despite the fact that I alone personally believe that the voting system is rigged in favor of the 2 Schmucks in a Blanket I will vote this one last time and give my Vote to Sarvis. If he loses, I am more than willing to say Bye Bye to Voting. I will go down to Princess Anne Country Registrars Office and have my name removed from The Voting List once and for all. That will be one less Voter for Democrats and Republicans.