President Barack Obama, shown here campaigning in Las Cruces in 2008. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
After surveying New Mexico voters recently, a left-leaning polling company says President Barack Obama’s re-election chances in the state look good.
Of course, we’re talking about the group Public Policy Polling, and I’ve already written about the controversy surrounding their work and this specific poll.
At any rate, PPP’s survey found the Democrat Obama leading all Republican candidates by wide margins. In two-person races, Ron Paul came the closest to challenging Obama, with 51 percent saying they would vote for Obama, 38 percent saying they would vote for Paul, and 12 percent being undecided.
However, add former N.M. Gov. Gary Johnson into the mix as a libertarian – Johnson is considering abandoning his GOP bid for president to do just that – and things get even worse for Republicans. With the three candidates being Obama, Johnson, and Republican Newt Gingrich, for example, Obama won with 45 percent to Gingrich’s 28 percent and Johnson’s 20 percent. In a three-person race that included Republican Mitt Romney instead of Gingrich, Obama won with 44 percent to Romney’s 27 percent and Johnson’s 23 percent.
Still, the news isn’t all good for Obama. From PPP:
“Barack Obama is considerably less popular in New Mexico now than he was in 2008. He won 57% of the vote there, but now has an approval rating under 50% in the state at 49/46. Those represent the poorest numbers we’ve found for him in New Mexico all year: in February he was at 55% approval and in June it was 50%. Obama is upside down with independents at 47/52 and has a lower than normal 72% approval rating with Democrats.”
Then why is he doing so well? From PPP:
“The good news for Obama though is that voters in the state aren’t responding positively to any of the Republican hopefuls. Current front runner Newt Gingrich has a 28/62 favorability rating and Mitt Romney’s is 27/58. The most ‘popular’ of the Republicans, such as it is, is Ron Paul at 27/54.”
The survey of 500 New Mexico voters between Dec. 10 and 12 has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.