Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 1, 1995                   TAG: 9511010057
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: WARREN FISKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

VIRGINIANS LEANING TO THE RIGHT

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 next Tuesday, while 43 percent said they probably will favor Democrats.

Similar figures were obtained in a poll of 513 likely voters conducted Oct. 17-29 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 the Mason/Dixon poll and 26 percent in VCU's - said they were undecided.

Republicans need to 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 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 been campaigning 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 will not influence their vote, and the rest were split evenly between wanting to help or hinder the governor.

Of those surveyed by Mason-Dixon, 27 percent said the biggest issue is state taxes and spending; 24 percent named education; 14 percent cited creation of jobs; and 10 percent targeted 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 have little knowledge about state government. Fewer than one in three knew that Democrats now control both houses of the General Assembly.

The Mason-Dixon poll has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. The VCU survey has a margin of error of 6 percentage points.

Keywords:
POLITICS