New poll puts Obama and Romney Michigan race in dead heat

(Detroit Free Press) WASHINGTON – Another new poll puts the race in Michigan between Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney as a dead heat a little more than four months before the election. 


Mitchell Research & Communications, based in East Lansing, put out a poll Thursday morning showing that Obama leads Romney in Michigan 47% to 46%, well within the 3.6-percentage-point margin of error. The automated poll of 750 likely Michigan voters was conducted this Monday, a day before Romney began a bus tour of the state. 


The poll follows a recent trend showing Romney catching up to Obama in Michigan, where he had trailed badly. Romney said this week that if he can win Michigan, where he was born and raised, he could capture the presidency. Michigan has gone for the Democratic presidential candidate in every election since backing Republican George H.W. Bush in 1988. 


“There is good news and bad news for both candidates in the survey,” said Steve Mitchell, chairman of Mitchell Research & Communications. “The good news is that almost half -- 49% -- of the voters say they have a favorable impression of President Obama. In past elections, the percentage of voters that approve of the job a president is doing is almost identical to the percentage of the vote the president gets on Election Day. The good news for Romney is that he is holding the president below 50% in both his job approval - 49% -- and his share of the vote --47%.”


Obama leads in Detroit (78%-22%) but Romney leads in those areas of Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties surrounding the city, 53%-45%, as well as in the rest of the state, though outside metro Detroit, Romney only leads 47%-45%.


“Romney should be doing better outstate. It is obvious now why he chose outstate areas to visit on his bus tour. He needs to shore up support in those areas,” Mitchell said.