THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 1, 1995 TAG: 9511010502
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: Election '95
SOURCE: BY WARREN FISKE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
Virginia voters may have a slight preference for Republican candidates in next week's General Assembly election, according to two new polls that were released Tuesday.
Of the 813 registered voters surveyed over the weekend by Mason-Dixon Political/Media Research Inc. of Columbia, Md., 46 percent said they are more likely to vote for Republicans in next Tuesday's elections while 43 percent said they will probably favor Democrats.
Similar figures were obtained in a poll of 513 likely voters conducted in October by Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Forty-one percent said they favored Republicans while 33 percent said they preferred Democrats.
A number of respondents - 11 percent in Mason/Dixon and 26 percent in VCU's - said they were undecided.
Republicans need gain only three seats in the House of Delegates and three in the Senate to seize unprecedented control of the legislature.
While the surveys depict a slight conservative leaning in the electorate, spokespersons for both polling concerns said they are not predicting Republican victories next week. They said the elections may well be determined by local politics in each of the 140 legislative districts. Although the pollsters sought to establish overall statewide trends, they did not attempt to measure any of the individual head-to-head races across the state.
Both surveys found that Gov. George F. Allen, a Republican, continues to be popular with voters. Fifty-four percent in the Mason-Dixon poll rated Allen's performance as either excellent or good, while 59 percent gave the governor such grades in the VCU poll.
Allen has campaigned vigorously this fall, saying he needs a Republican majority to lower taxes and cut services. But 56 percent of those questioned by Mason-Dixon said Allen's endorsement of a candidate won't influence their vote; the rest were evenly split between wanting to help or hinder the governor.
Of those surveyed by Mason-Dixon, 27 percent said state taxes and spending is the biggest issue, 24 percent named education, 14 percent cited jobs creation and 10 percent said they are most concerned about crime.
Respondents in the VCU poll said Democrats are the best party to improve education and protect the environment. They said Republicans are more likely to keep taxes low, be tough on crime and create jobs.
The VCU survey suggests that voters know little about state government. Fewer than one in three knew that Democrats control both houses of the General Assembly.
KEYWORDS: POLL GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF DELEGATES VIRGINIA STATE
SENATE ELECTION by CNB