Of 400 likely voters in the Democratic primary who were surveyed, 53 percent said they would vote for Obama and 37 percent favored Clinton.
On the Republican side, John McCain appeared to be solidifying his role as nominee-to-be with a 28-percentage point lead over Mike Huckabee.
The statewide poll, commissioned by The Roanoke Times and other Virginia newspapers, was conducted Thursday and Friday by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research.
It was Obama's 82 percent support among black voters that bolstered his statewide standing, the poll found. And while Clinton took 49 percent of the white vote in the poll, Obama was not far behind with 41 percent.
Of the female voters surveyed, 49 percent favored Obama, compared with 41 percent for Clinton.
The poll showed McCain running well ahead in every part of the state except Southwest Virginia, where the Arizona senator was dead even with Huckabee. And while Huckabee had an 11-percentage point lead among "very conservative" Republicans, self-described evangelical Christians were slightly more likely to back McCain.
Of the 400 likely Republican voters surveyed, 40 percent said "strength and leadership to keep America safe" was the quality they most wanted in a candidate, while another 37 percent wanted someone who shared their personal values.
Obama led Clinton more than 3-to-1 among Democrats seeking a change, while she held an even wider lead over the Illinois senator among voters looking for experience.
The poll, which was conducted by random telephone interviews Thursday and Friday, has a 5 percent margin of error. In other words, there is a 95 percent probability that the results would be the same if all voters were surveyed.
http://www.roanoke.com/politics/wb/150265
