Sweet Sixteen!

The results of a statewide poll conducted by SurveyUSA on behalf of the NBC affiliate TV stations in Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Youngstown were released today, and much to the chargin of Republicans, they mirror the result of a poll released last month: It shows Democratic gubenatorial nominee Congressman Ted Strickland with a 16 point lead over Republican nominee Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell.

When 507 likely Ohio voters were asked whom they would vote for if the election were held today, 53% said they would vote for Congressman Strickland, 37% said they would vote for Secretary Blackwell, while the remaining 10% either support third-party candidates or were undecided. Among self-described independents, Strickland sports a 20 point lead, according to the poll results.

This result is consistent with previous polls done by a wide variety of organizations. The more surprising result is in the U.S. Senate race. The SurveyUSA poll results show that 48% of respondents support Democratic nominee Congressman Sherrod Brown, 39% support Republican incumbent Sen. Mike DeWine, with the remaining 13% undecided. Self-described independents surveyed in this poll favor Brown over DeWine by 14 points.

This puts the SurveyUSA poll at odds with the Rasmussen poll released last month, which showed Sherrod Brown with only a three point lead. The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.