President Obama leads GOP challenger Mitt Romney by five percentage points in the critical swing state of Ohio, according to a Quinnipiac University/CBS News/New York Times poll released Monday morning.
But a poll from Public Policy Polling, a Democratic polling firm based in North Carolina, released an Ohio poll Saturday that showed only one percentage point separates Obama and Romney - 49 percent for Obama, 48 percent for Romney.
The new Quinnipiac Poll credits a large gender gap for the finding that Obama has 50 percent support in Ohio as opposed to 45 percent for Romney. It showed 55 percent of women voters backing Obama, compared to 40 per cent for Romney, while Romney led among male voters 51 to 44 percent.
"The good news for Gov. Romney is that he has sliced President Obama's lead in half in the last month,'' said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the polling institute at Quinnipiac University, which polls in key battleground states. "The bad news for Romney is that no Republican has ever won the White House without carrying Ohio and the challenger is running out of time to make up the remaining difference."
In Ohio's U.S. Senate race, Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown held a nine percentage point lead - 51-42 - over state treasurer Josh Mandel.
Quinnipiac polled 1,548 likely Ohio voters between Oct. 17-20. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.5 percent.
