Washington - Senator Hillary Clinton's advantage over Barack Obama has narrowed among voters in Pennsylvania, the next major prize in the heated state-by-state contest for the Democratic presidential nomination, a poll showed Wednesday. Clinton outpolled Obama 50 per cent to 41 per cent among likely primary voters in the eastern state's April 22 vote, down from a 53- 41 lead in a survey two weeks ago, the Quinnipiac University poll said.
Analysts see a major win in the large state as key for Clinton, who trails Obama in the number of delegates needed to secure the nomination at the party convention in August.
An average of polls calculated by the website RealClearPolitics over two weeks shows Clinton with just a 6 percentage point lead over Obama, after she held a significant double digit lead before then.
The former first lady holds a clear lead with Pennsylvania's female voters, but is tied with Obama among men. He has an advantage among younger voters, but Clinton leads 54 per cent to 37 per cent among the state's large older population, the Quinnipiac poll said.
"Her strength is her clear advantage among white voters - blue collar whites, less educated whites, economically hurting whites, that group known famously as Reagan Democrats in the Keystone State," Clay Richards, assistant director of the university's Polling Institute, said in a statement. "Obama is marshalling all his forces, but despite his eloquent dialogue on the race issue, Pennsylvania Democrats are unmoved. So far."
The economy, the Iraq war and health care are voters' top issues, the poll showed.
The survey of nearly 3,500 Pennsylvania voters had a margin of error of 1.7 per cent, and included about 1,550 likely Democratic voters, with a margin of error of 2.5 per cent.
Qunnipiac University is located in the north-eastern state of Connecticut.
