Rasmussen poll shows Obama maintains Colorado lead

Colorado voters favor Barack Obama over John McCain by 5 points — tightening from a 7-point lead three days earlier — according to a Fox News/Rasmussen Reports poll released Monday. McCain hasn’t led in the critical battleground state poll for a month.

The Democratic presidential nominee leads 51-46 percent in the survey with only 3 percent undecided. Colorado has awarded its electoral votes to a Democrat only twice in the last 44 years — to Bill Clinton in 1992 and Lyndon Johnson in 1964 — but both campaigns have said the state is key to winning the presidency this year.

McCain wins among men, with a 7-point lead, but loses bigger among women, trailing by 14 points, the polls found. White voters are almost equally divided but Obama leads handily among African-American and Hispanic voters, trouncing McCain 67-31. Both candidates have supporters who say they could change their mind before voting — 11 percent for McCain and 14 percent for Obama.

The economy was listed as the most important election issue by almost twice as many Colorado voters who said national security topped their concerns. Obama had the edge for handling the economy 50-44, while McCain led by the same margin, 51-45, on national security.

By a wide margin, 41-28, Colorado voters believe Obama is the candidate to bring “real change” to Washington. However, 18 percent feel both Obama and McCain can bring change and 11 percent said neither can change things.

Both candidates have overwhelming support from partisans, with 93 percent of Democrats backing Obama and 88 percent of Republicans tilting to McCain. Among unaffiliated voters, Obama leads by 14 points.

The telephone survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted Sunday and has a 3-percent margin of error.

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