Virginia House Races: Stock Up On Donkey Pinatas

The hottest House race in Virginia right now is in the ninth district, where incumbent Democrat Rick Boucher leads Republican challenger Morgan Griffith by just three points, according to a new poll by CC advertising. Tomorrow, another poll will come out from SurveyUSA that the Griffith campaign is optimistic about. Here's Marty Gordon, a spokesman for Griffith campaign:

We think that [the lead] has gotten closer, and it will continue to get closer as election day comes around because of both the increase in his advertising and our advertising. We feel that the double-digit lead has dissolved...The big issue is cap and trade, and how that's going to affect coal jobs. That's starting to hit home, and as people are understanding that as coal jobs are lost, so is the job in the family restaurant. It's a trickle down effect.

Survey USA's last poll had him Griffith down by ten, but since then, Boucher hasn't really acted like a politician who is leading by double digits:

You couldn't squeeze the word "Democrat" in that spot if you tried. Contrast it with Griffith's latest:

The ninth district is more rural and poor than either the second, fifth, or eleventh, which CC also released polls on this morning, meaning that there's a steeper hill to climb for Griffith than Virginia's other Republican candidates. But it's do-able, especially given that those other districts enjoy fourteen, sixteen, and five point leads, respectively. Stock up on donkey pinatas...