Morning Read: New Poll Shows Obama Leading In Virginia, Kaine And Allen Tied

A new poll puts Obama ahead of Romney in the battleground state of Virginia, 49 to 44 percent.

The NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls found that Obama carries the same five-point lead in Florida and a seven-point lead in Ohio.

Obama won Virginia in 2008, but that victory marked the first time a Democrat carried the state since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Obama also won Florida and Ohio in 2008.

Only 5 percent of voters are still undecided, a figure that will make it harder for Romney to catch up in the state.

Among likely voters in Virginia, the poll also found that 49 percent approve with the job Obama is doing as president while 44 percent disapprove.

“You’d rather be in Obama’s shoes than Romney’s in these three critical states,” Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, says of the poll results.

NBC’s Senior Political Editor Mark Murray wrote that Romney will likely need to win at least two of these states, if not all three, to secure the 270 electoral votes necessary to win the presidency.

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Obama just needs to win one of these states in addition to the states he’s already assumed to win.

Murray writes that if Obama loses all three of the states, he could still secure the presidency if he wins the undecided states of Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and Wisconsin.

And in the highly anticipated Virginia senate race between two former governors, the results are once again tied.

Forty-six percent of likely voters say they plan to vote for Kaine, while forty-six percent of voters support Allen. Eight percent of voters are undecided.

The polls have a margin of error of 3.1 percent.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Michelle Obama rallies supporters in Richmond

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* Sen. Rand Paul endorses AG Ken Cuccinelli for Virginia governor.

* Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley hires adviser for new PAC

* D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray opens center for early childhood education

* Gray’s administration plans to extend current Medicaid managed care contracts five months beyond their April 30, 2013, expiration date.

* D.C. launches campaign to fight transgender discrimination
 

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