Kaine leads Allen in two new polls

Former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D) leads former Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) by a comfortable margin in the Virginia Senate race, according to two new nonpartisan polls.

Kaine leads Allen by 49 to 44 percent in a new NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll and by 47 to 37 percent in a new Roanoke College poll. Both show him consolidating support from minority voters, who in previous polls backed President Obama but were unsure of who they planned to vote for in the Senate race.

The two top-tier candidates had been knotted in the polls for months, but in recent weeks Kaine has opened up a small lead — in the last eight polls of the race he's led in seven and was tied with Allen in one, a Suffolk University poll that was released last week.

While Kaine has slightly lagged behind Obama in most polls of the campaign, he is now slightly outpacing the president: Obama leads GOP contender Mitt Romney by 8 points in the Roanoke poll and by 2 in the NBC/WSJ/Marist poll.

The race is likely to stay close, and both sides are continuing to spend heavily on the air there. But if Kaine can continue to run a few points ahead of Obama and the presidential race remains close, he could be in good shape heading into Election Day.

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