I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
According to the Public Policy Polling numbers released today, two Democratic incumbents lead their Republican challengers while one is not far behind his Republican opponent.
Congressman Martin Heinrich leads Jon Barela 45 percent to 36 percent, Ben Ray Lujan both leads Tom Mullins 42 percent to 36 percent and Adam Kokesh 40 percent to 32 percent. In the 2nd Congressional District, Republican challenger Steve Pearce leads Harry Teague 43 percent to 41 percent. The Democratic polling firm surveyed 400 voters in each congressional district and each poll has a margin of error of 4.9 percent for each poll.
“Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Lujan look like they should be good for reelection,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling in a statement. “Harry Teague has built a good amount of support given how conservative his district is, but will have a hard time hanging on in this political climate.”
In the 1st Congressional District, Barela has virtually no name recognition — 72 percent of those polled have no opinion of the challenger. Meanwhile, Heinrich has a 40 percent approval rating to a 38 percent disapproval rating. President Barack Obama has a 47 percent approval rating to go along with his 47 percent disapproval rating.
The 2nd Congressional District looks like a competitive race at this point — Pearce leads Teague by two percentage points in the PPP poll. This is very close to the internal poll by Pearce that showed the Republican up by 4 percent.
The 2nd Congressional District was the lone district that Obama lost in New Mexico in 2008 (50 percent to 49 percent). There, Obama has a negative approval rating of 44 percent approval to 49 percent disapproval; both Teague and Pearce, however, have positive approval ratings.
Pearce is viewed favorably by 43 percent of those polled against 31 percent who view him unfavorably. Teague has a 41 percent job approval rating versus a 36 percent disapproval rating.
In the 3rd Congressional District, Lujan leads two candidates with very little name recognition. The poll questions “Ben Lujan” instead of “Ben Ray Lujan” which could effect the poll results (Ben Lujan is Ben Ray Lujan’s father and the Speaker of the House in the New Mexico State Legislature).
Both Kokesh and Mullins have very high numbers of voters with no opinion of them; 79 percent for Kokesh and 81 percent for Mullins. However, among those that have opinions of the two Republicans, 10 percent have a favorable view of Mullins versus 8 percent with an unfavorable view and 4 percent have a favorable view of Kokesh versus 17 percent who have an unfavorable view.
Lujan, who has a negative approval rating of 31 percent who approve versus 40 percent who disapprove, to small leads over both potential Republican challengers.
The full polling memo, along with the questions asked and results, are available below:
