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.
Months from now Sept. 22 might go down in the annals of the 2010 New Mexico governor’s race as the day of the dueling polls.
The day that Republican Susana Martinez attempted to create – or cement — the impression that momentum was hers, and a widening gap appeared inevitable, by announcing results of an internal poll by a Republican polling firm.
And also it was the day Lt. Gov. Diane Denish responded to Martinez’s voter survey with her own results from an internal poll conducted by a Democratic firm. That survey revealed a much closer race, albeit one in which she still trailed Martinez.
It’s best to view the dueling internal polls as weapons in an ongoing battle to influence the narrative of the governor’s race with less than six weeks to go before the Nov. 2 election.
Martinez’s poll showed her up by 10 points; Denish’s poll showed her trailing Martinez by only 5 points.
Denish is losing in both, but her internal poll more closely resembles the results of an Albuquerque Journal poll, an independent survey, released in late August. That survey had Martinez up by six points. Denish’s message: there hasn’t been much movement among voters, and the contest continues to be a tight race.
Martinez’s internal poll, on the other hand, creates a different impression: voters, especially those who are undecided, are increasingly favoring Martinez, reinforcing the idea that momentum is on her side and the gap is widening.
Martinez wants to foster the impression that she’s hard to beat. Denish wants to tell voters that the race is tight and it’s still anyone’s for the taking.
I read the results from both internal polls with a healthy dose of skepticism. It’s not that they are necessarily inaccurate but there is no incentive for campaigns to publicly release polls that feature bad or disappointing news for the candidate.
Plus, six weeks is an eternity in politics. Anything can happen.
So I’m waiting on the next Albuquerque Journal poll to confirm one of these competing narratives.
Stay tuned.
