Rasmussen: Gregoire 47, Rossi 43

The latest Rasmussen poll on the Washington state gubernatorial race shows a tightening race with Gov. Chris Gregoire narrowly leading Republican challenger Dino Rossi 47 percent to 43 percent. With "leaners" added in, the difference remains the same with Gregoire polling at 50 percent and Rossi 46.

This marks the third consecutive month that Rossi has polled at 43 percent for Rasmussen, with Gregoire's support dipping the last two months from 50 to 49, and now 49 to 47 percent.

Among partisans, Rossi is backed by 90 percent of Republican-identifying voters and Gregoire gets the vote of 87 percent of Democrats. Rossi currently leads among unaffiliated voters by 13 points.

In presidential polling, Illinois Democrat Barack Obama leads his Republican colleague Sen. John McCain here in Washington 52-40, his second largest lead of the race according to monthly Rasmussen tracking.

The survey for both contests included 500 likely voters on August 6, with a margin of error of +/- 4.5%.