A new Quad-City Times and Lee Enterprises poll of Iowa voters shows Democrat Barack Obama holding a commanding lead in the state with a little more than six weeks to go before Election Day.

In a survey of 600 likely voters who vote regularly in state elections, 53 percent said they would support Obama, and 39 percent said they would support Republican John McCain.

A total of 3 percent in the poll said they would support someone else, and another 5 percent were undecided.

Obama led among male and female voters and all age groups, as well as with independent voters. Of the independents polled, 55 percent support Obama and 37 percent support McCain.

The poll was conducted between Sept. 15 and 17 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Pollster Del Ali, whose Maryland-based firm Research 2000 conducted the survey, attributed some of Obama's support to the time he spent in the state ahead of Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses in January. Obama won the Democratic caucuses in a record turnout.

"This is the state that started it all for Obama. He's very popular here," Ali said. In a statement, Obama's Iowa director Jackie Norris said the campaign has seen momentum as the economy and a "need for change in Washington" become a larger focus in the election.

Republican Doug Gross, who is co-chairing the party's get-out-the-vote efforts in Iowa, said internal polls are showing a tight race in the state between McCain and Obama.

"Our view is that Iowa's still very much in play and will continue to be in play and is neck-and-neck," Gross said.

McCain's Iowa spokeswoman, Wendy Riemann, said the campaign considers Iowa a battleground state.

"We're committed to winning Iowa, and we will be fighting to win Iowa through Nov. 4," she said.

McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, which swung the spotlight back to the GOP candidate, didn't make a large share of voters more likely to support McCain, the Research 2000 survey showed.

Of those polled, 61 percent said the Palin pick had no effect on their decision, and 22 percent said it made them more likely to vote for McCain.

The addition of Delaware Sen. Joe Biden to Obama's ticket had even less of an impact with poll respondents. A total of 77 percent said Biden had no effect on their decision, and just 17 percent said they were more likely to vote for the ticket with Biden on it.

Far and away, poll respondents picked the economy and jobs as the single most important issue affecting their decision. A total of 36 percent said it was their top concern, followed by the Iraq war and reducing health care costs, which both polled at 12 percent.

chareby@aol.com|(515) 243-0138