by Marc Kovac
Capital Bureau Chief
Columbus -- New York Sen. Hillary Clinton still outpaces Illinois Sen. Barack Obama among likely Ohio Democrat voters, though her double-digit lead is about half what it was two weeks ago.
Clinton was the choice among 51 percent of 741 likely Democratic primary voters polled last week by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, compared to 40 percent for Obama.
Two weeks prior, likely voters favored Clinton 55 percent-34 percent.
The latest numbers have a margin of error about 4 percent.
"Sen. Obama has cut in half Sen. Clinton's lead in Ohio," Peter Brown, assistant director of the Connecticut-based institute, told reporters in Columbus Monday morning. It's "still a substantial lead, but obviously not nearly what it was two weeks ago."
The overall trend was not unexpected, as the campaigns have shifted their television advertising and other efforts to Ohio and Texas, which has its primary on the same day.
And Clinton has been expected to have a strong showing in Ohio, where demographics lean in her favor.
"Ohio has a blue collar economy," Brown said. "Its population is slightly less likely to have a college degree ... My guess is it's a little bid older than some of the other states where Sen. Obama has (done well)."
Clinton maintained her leads among older voters, whites, women and Ohioans without a college degree.
Obama, meanwhile, outpaced his opponent among young voters and African-Americans.
"Her lead is quite substantial," Brown said, adding, "It's tough to play defense ... The question is whether she can hold on in Ohio."
Quinnipiac (pronounced Kwin-uh-pe-ack) will release one final pre-primary poll on the eve of next Tuesday's contest.
Ohio poll
Clinton also led Obama, though by a smaller margin, in the University of Cincinnati's Institute for Policy Research's latest poll, also released on Feb. 25.
Clinton was the candidate choice among 47 percent of the 529 likely Democratic voters interviewed during the past week, compared to Obama's 39 percent. A total of 9 percent intend to vote for John Edwards, who suspended his campaign late last month.
The poll has a margin of error of 5.5 percent.
Other results from the latest Quinnipiac poll included:
* Considering potential Republican running-mates for likely Republican nominee John McCain, Ohio Sen. George Voinovich and former Ohio congressman and U.S. trade representative Rob Portman would not bolster the GOP ticket.
"Ohioans apparently don't think they're elected leaders will be good vice presidents," Brown said.
* President George W. Bush's approval rating continued to drop among Ohio voters, with 69 percent disapproving of his performance. That's up from 61 percent two weeks ago and 67 percent in November.
* A total of 65 percent of respondents believe the U.S. economy is in a recession, but 56 percent also believe their personal finance are in "excellent" or "good" condition.
* Sixty-two percent of those polled said going to war in Iraq was the wrong thing to do, up from 60 percent in March 2007 and 56 percent in January 2007.
Marc Kovac is the Dix Newspapers Capital Bureau chief. E-mail him at mkovac@dixcom.com. His Capital Blog is at blogs.recordpub.com/capitalblog.