President Obama is maintaining a small but steady lead in Ohio, according to a new poll released Tuesday commissioned by Columbus TV station WCMH and conducted by SurveyUSA. Obama sees 48 percent to Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s 45 percent, very similar totals to a number of other Ohio polls released over the last week. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 4.1 percent.
Political independents split toward Romney 48 percent to Obama’s 37 percent, but the president leads overall due to the gender gap — he’s ahead with women by 13 points and Romney takes men by 8 percent.
Fifty percent of likely voters support the government financial bailout of the American auto companies, a major issue in the state, while 37 percent opposed that action. Women voters supported it by a 18 point margin, men an 8 point advantage, and independent voters are split evenly at 43 percent. The pro-bailout total is support by 82 percent of Democrats and 16 percent of Republicans, and another 17 percent of Republicans say they are “not sure” whether they support it.
