Hillary slips vs. GOP in Colo., Iowa polls

Hillary Clinton's lead over potential Republican opponents has shriveled in the crucial swing states of Colorado and Iowa, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.

Rand Paul, the libertarian-leaning Kentucky senator who announced his candidacy for the GOP nomination Tuesday, was leading the former first lady by three percentage points in Colorado – 44 percent to 41 percent, and by a single point in Iowa, 43 percent to 42 percent.

Clinton was ahead of Paul in the third swing state tested, Virginia, with a four-point margin, 47 percent to 43 percent, but that was her closest shave there against any of seven potential Republican nominees.

She ran strongest in Virginia, which has trended blue in recent presidential elections, but Clinton's standing has dropped sharply in all three states compared to Qunnipiac's similiar Feb. 18 survey.

The pollsters attributed the movement to the controversy about Clinton using a personal e-mail server and address when she was secretary of state in the Obama administration, despite federal rules that require the use of official government addresses to preserve public records.

Indeed, 56 percent of registered voters in Colorado said that Clinton is not an honest or trustworthy figure, the poll found. Forty-nine percent of those surveyed in Iowa agreed with that statement, as did 52 percent of Virginia respondents.

"It isn't just one or two Republicans who are stepping up; it's virtually the entire GOP field that is running better against [Clinton]," said Peter A. Brown, associate director of the Quinnipiac Poll.

"Voters do think she is a strong leader – a key metric – but unless she can change the honesty perception, running as a competent but dishonest candidate has serious potential problems," Brown said.

Pollsters interviewed about 900 registered voters in each of the three swing states between March 29 and April 7. Results are subject to a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.