ROBB HOLDS STRONG LEAD OVER NORTH IN BOTH ALBEMARLE AND CHARLOTTESVILLE, NEW U.VA. POLL FINDS CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Nov. 1 -- Incumbent U.S. Sen. Charles S. Robb has taken a surprisingly strong lead over opponents Oliver L. North and J. Marshall Coleman in Albemarle County as well as in the City of Charlottesville, according to a University of Virginia poll released today. Robb, a Democrat, was the favorite of 48 percent of Albemarle voters surveyed in the last 10 days, with 26 percent backing Republican North and 15 percent supporting independent candidate Coleman. Eleven percent were undecided. In traditionally liberal Charlottesville, the poll showed Robb with 50 percent support, North with 19 percent and Coleman with 15 percent. The remaining 16 percent did not state a preference. The combined results for the city and the county showed 49 percent for Robb, 23 percent for North, 15 percent for Coleman and 13 percent undecided. ÒItÕs clear that Oliver North is running less well in our area than George Bush did in 1992 and George Allen did in 1993,Ó said U.Va. sociology professor Thomas M. Guterbock, director of the Center for Survey Research and co-director of the poll. ÒUnlike Allen and Bush, he has failed to win the support of moderates.Ó Eighty-one percent of respondents who identified themselves in the survey as ÒliberalÓ support Robb, with only 6 percent for North and 6 percent for Coleman. Among ÒconservativeÓ voters, 62 percent favor North, 15 percent favor Robb and 9 percent are for Coleman. Among ÒmoderatesÓ (40 percent of local voters), Coleman draws 26 percent and Robb has 50 percent, with only 12 percent of moderates supporting North. The telephone survey of 517 registered voters residing in Charlottesville or Albemarle County was taken Oct. 20-28, and has an overall sampling error of plus or minus 4.4 percent. Eight-five percent of those polled said they were Òvery likelyÓ to vote Nov. 8, and among these voters the results were 51 percent for Robb, 25 percent for North, 15 percent for Coleman, with only 10 percent undecided. Among other findings, the poll showed that North had lined up only 59 percent of local Republicans, whereas Robb was winning overwhelming support--87 percent--among local Democrats. Independents gave Robb a large plurality as well. Coleman, a former Republican attorney general, did best among independents and Republicans, taking almost no Democratic votes from Robb. The results also show that Virginia Governor George Allen has not been able to transfer his relative popularity to North. Fewer than half of AllenÕs 1993 voters--45 percent--said they planned to vote for North. Of those who voted for Democrat Mary Sue Terry in her race against Allen last year, 83 percent said they plan to vote for Robb. The poll results suggest that economic factors, rather than the character issues dogging North and Robb or the votersÕ feelings toward President Clinton, were the main factors explaining the vote. Among several factors affecting the vote, local voters said the state of the economy was most important, followed by concern about crime. VotersÕ feelings about Clinton was the least important factor. About half of all voters said they believed the national economy was doing better than when Clinton took office, and among these voters, 70 percent supported Robb, whereas only 10 percent supported North. Fewer than a quarter of voters said the national economy had gotten worse, and among them North pulled 45 percent support locally, compared to 24 percent for Robb. ÒMr. Clinton finally is benefitting from an improved economy, and as his stock goes up, it appears, so does that of Senator Robb,Ó said U.Va. Government and Foreign Affairs lecturer Mark Hertzog, the other co-director of the poll. ÒThe generalized anger at Washington that Col. North has been exploiting may not be as wide or deep as we had thought.Ó North did best among those who said that their feelings about Clinton or the need to restore traditional moral values were Òvery importantÓ in deciding their vote. Even in these categories, however, North only tied with Robb. People who said gun control, gay rights, and issues related to race were very important supported Robb by large margins. In other results, the poll showed that Fifth District Rep. L.F. Payne Jr., Democrat of Nellysford, has a large lead in the Charlottesville-Albemarle portion of his district over Republican challenger George Landrith, a member of the Albemarle County School Board. Payne has the support of 61 percent of Fifth District voters in the area, with Landrith having the support of 25 percent and 13 percent undecided. Three hundred and four registered voters who live in the fifth District were surveyed; the margin of error is plus or minus 5.5 percent. The fifth District also includes substantial areas outside the local region which were not covered by this survey. The local telephone poll of randomly dialed registered voters is an annual instructional project, co-directed this year by Guterbock and Hertzog. Students in three classes in the government and sociology departments at U.Va. participated in planning the survey and conducting the interviews, using the computer-aided interviewing facilities of the Center for Survey Research. ### October 31, 1994 FOR MORE INFORMATION, call Thomas Guterbock at (804) 924-6516 or Mark Hertzog at (804) 978-6325.