A new poll from Quinnipiac University says Virginians, by nearly a 3-1 majority, oppose Congress using Obamacare as a way to delay approval of a budget and forcing a partial shutdown since October 1.

The same poll also shows that voter anger over the shutdown is playing in the favor of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe and hurting his opponent, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a favorite of the same tea party that is trying to hold Obamacare hostage in the continuing debacle over the shutdown and a looming default on the nation’s debt.

Not surprisingly, Cuccinelli lately has been trying to act more like a moderate and less like a tea party puppet but polls suggest the public is not buying his conversion.  It seems too convenient for a candidate in serious ethical and political trouble.

Cuccinelli has avoided Floyd County in this campaign.  The Democratic candidates for both governor and lt. governor has appeared here but nada for the GOP ticket topper.

The loud and raucous few who make up what remains of the rapidly-shrinking tea party in Virginia claim they represent the bulk of Virginians.  Polls suggest otherwise.  Few identify themselves as either a believer in or member of the tea party and most say they consider those who belong to the faux grassroots movement to rank somewhere below used car salesmen and politicians.

Even the uber-rich Koch brothers, who funded the tea party to further their own hidden agendas in the early days, are backing away and putting their money to use somewhere else.

Writes Bob Lewis of The Associated Press:

Playing out just across the Potomac River from shutdown central, the Virginia governor’s race has turned into a real-time test of Republican and Democratic positions in the congressional budget battle raging in the nation’s capital.

With polls indicating more public resentment toward Republicans than Democrats, the federal work stoppage directly affecting thousands of Virginia residents has forced Republican Ken Cuccinelli on the defensive while giving Democrat Terry McAuliffe an opening in a race that had been neck-and-neck for months.

Now, public and internal surveys show voter support has started breaking McAuliffe’s way, with the Democrat leading by 8 percentage points in a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday. The same poll showed that by a nearly 3-1 majority, Virginians opposed Congress shutting down the government in a fight over President Barack Obama’s health care law.

Looks like the fire is out under the tea pot.