HILLARY LEADS IN OHIO

Polls show Hillary leading Barack as primary nears

Two polls of likely Democratic voters in Ohio show Hillary Clinton leading Barack Obama with eight days until the March 4 presidential primary.

Obama is gaining on Clinton in a Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll released today. Clinton is leading 51 percent to 40 percent among likely Ohio Democratic primary voters.

Clinton is leading Obama by 8 percentage points, 47 percent to 39 percent, in today’s Ohio Poll, conducted by the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati.

The Ohio Poll was conducted from Thursday to Sunday via telephone of 529 likely Democratic voters in the state. The margin of error is 4.3 percent. Quinnipiac polled 564 likely Ohio Democratic voters over the telephone between Feb. 6 and 12 with a margin of error of 4.1 percent.

Among the 1,748 Ohio voters — likely Democrats, likely Republicans and independents — who Quinnipiac polled, there is a statistical dead-heat in potential November general election races between McCain and Clinton and McCain and Obama.