Both polls show Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson still impacting the race. The Emerson poll has him at 7 percent. The NBC poll has him at 9 among likely voters.
Portman continues lead over Strickland
A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows Republican Sen. Rob Portman holding an 18-point lead over Democratic challenger Ted Strickland.
In a poll of 724 likely voters conducted Monday through Wednesday, Portman has 55 percent of the vote compared to 37 percent for Strickland. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.
The poll was released as Strickland is scaling back his TV advertising to the Cleveland and Columbus markets for the week of Oct. 17. The Strickland campaign has cancelled commercials for that week for Dayton, Cincinnati, Toledo, and Charleston, W. Va.
Although the moves are yet another sign that Strickland is running short of money to spend on TV commercials, Bob Clegg, president of Midwest Communications said Strickland still has reserved TV commercials in every major Ohio market during the final two weeks of the campaign.