DATE: Thursday, October 23, 1997            TAG: 9710230528

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:   31 lines

FOR THE FIRST TIME, GILMORE LEADS BEYER IN POLL

Republican James S. Gilmore III has jumped to a significant lead over Democrat Donald S. Beyer Jr. for the first time in the Virginia governor's race, according to a new Washington Post poll that suggests Gilmore's plan to cut the state's tax on cars and trucks is attracting voters in high-tax areas like Northern Virginia.

A month after a Post poll indicated the race was deadlocked, Gilmore now leads Beyer 48 percent to 41 percent among likely voters - a lead beyond the poll's margin of error of 3 percentage points. The Republican, a former state attorney general from suburban Richmond, also has virtually tied Beyer in Northern Virginia, where the Alexandria Democrat had hoped to build a large margin of victory to offset GOP support in more conservative areas downstate.

Besides erasing Beyer's home-field advantage in Washington's suburbs with a plan to nearly phase out the vehicle tax that costs residents hundreds of dollars a year, Gilmore has created doubts about the Democrat's credibility, the poll found.

The Post surveyed 1,005 likely voters from Sunday to Tuesday. The margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus 3 percentage points. ILLUSTRATION: Gilmore

Beyer KEYWORDS: POLL GUBERNATORIAL RACE

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