Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Democrat Barack Obama's lead over Republican John McCain in the race for president has dropped to 14 points in Rhode Island, with 45 percent favoring Obama, and 31 percent for McCain, according to the latest Rhode Island College poll of Rhode Island voters.

Obama had held a 28-point lead over McCain in late-June polling by the college's Bureau of Government Research and Services.

Fifteen percent of voters, however, were undecided, in this Democrat-leaning state.

A survey of R.I. voters released earlier this week by Brown University's Taubman Center for Public Policy generated almost the same numbers, with Obama leading McCain, 47 percent to 34 percent. In August, he led McCain 50 percent to 30 percent.

The bureau at RIC said the survey was timed to measure opinions before the scheduled debate between Obama and McCain tomorrow night. Most of the interviews were conducted, it said, before McCain suspended campaigning yesterday to focus on the economic bailout proposal and has asked Obama to cancel the debate. This afternoon, the two candidates were meeting with President Bush as part of his bid to sell the bailout plan.

The latest survey by the college in Providence also found:

* Three out of four believe the state of Rhode Island is going in the wrong direction -- down from 8 out of 10, or 80 percent, in June. Seventy-four percent said wrong track in the current poll, 12 percent said right direction, 12 percent said they don't know, and one percent gave no answer.

* Legislative Democrats are the most blamed for Rhode Island's financial problems, but fared better than they did in June. Forty-one percent of the surveyed voters blamed Democrats in the state Legislature in June. It's now 34 percent. And 28 percent now put the most blame on Governor Carcieri, a Republican. Twenty-three percent said both the legislative Democrats and Carcieri.

* Support for Governor Carcieri's executive order cracking down on illegal immigration, including requiring use of the federal E-Verify system by employers, is all but unchanged from June to now. Seventy-five percent agreed with it in June. It's 73 percent now.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

 Tags  Carcieri Democrats Obama Rhode Island College

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