http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aAx9ETXb_AH0&refer=usJune 24 (Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry leads by 6 percentage points over U.S. President George W. Bush in an Ohio poll and is in a statistical tie in Pennsylvania.
In Ohio, Kerry is supported by 49 percent of 600 likely voters surveyed June 21-23 by American Research Group Inc. compared with 43 percent for Bush. Kerry, a four-term U.S. senator from Massachusetts, gained 44 percent in Pennsylvania compared with 43 percent for Bush among 839 registered voters surveyed June 21-22 by Quinnipiac University.
The two states were among the 17 closest races in the 2000 election, when Bush defeated Democrat and former Vice President Al Gore. Bush, 57, won Ohio by 3.6 percentage points in 2000; Gore, 56, took Pennsylvania by 4.3 points. Kerry, 60, and Bush are spending most of their advertising dollars in those 17 so- called battleground states.
``Pennsylvania is living up to expectations as having one of the closest presidential battles in the nation,'' said Clay Richards, assistant director of the polling institute at Hamden, Connecticut-based Quinnipiac, in a statement. ``Ralph Nader clearly is cutting into Senator Kerry's vote.''
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