Kaine cut Allen’s lead among white voters to 9 percentage points, down from 16 percent, PPP noted.

{mosads}“Any Democrat who can hold a Republican to a single-digit advantage with white voters in Virginia is going to win handily,” PPP Director Tom Jensen wrote on the group’s website.

The PPP survey results come on the heels of an Oct. 4 poll by the conservative-leaning Rasmussen Reports, which also showed Kaine with a 7-point lead over Allen. Kaine leads in the Real Clear Politics polling average by 4.7 points. 

The Virginia Senate race has drawn attention in energy circles, where advertisements have portrayed Allen as beholden to Big Oil.

Allen favors expanding domestic onshore and offshore fossil fuel development and notes he has “long opposed a carbon tax.” The Allen campaign and outside groups like the Karl Rove-backed Crossroads GPS have criticized Kaine for supporting the concept of a cap-and-trade emissions program.

Kaine says on his campaign website that the nation needs to make “a commitment to transition to a lower-carbon energy portfolio” by expanding the use of clean-energy technology.

Kaine has outraised Allen in every fundraising quarter since the campaign began, with Kaine hauling in $15 million to Allen’s $11.2 million. But outside groups have flooded the race as well, making it unlikely either campaign will have a significant edge in airtime.

The two candidates will square off Monday in a televised debate in Richmond, Va.