Pearce gains on Udall in new poll

A new poll suggests that Republican Steve Pearce is closing what has been a wide gap between him and Democrat Tom Udall in the U.S. Senate race.

Udall leads by 10 points, 51 percent to 41 percent, in the newest Rasmussen Reports poll released Thursday. With “leaners” factored in, the group states, Udall’s lead drops even further — to 52 percent to 44 percent.

The Pearce campaign seized on that eight-point difference in a news release, pointing out that the group’s monthly polling had Pearce trailing by 25 points in late July and 28 points in June.

“It proves what we’re seeing and hearing all over the state. People are rejecting the failed policies of the past,” Pearce said in the release. “Particularly on energy, they are tired of watching Tom Udall and the far-left, anti-drilling, anti-nuclear extremists deny access to American resources.”

The telephone survey of 700 likely voters was conducted on Aug. 20 and has a margin of error of four percentage points.

While Udall began general-election television advertising weeks ago, Pearce just recently went on the air, which may help explain the shrinking gap. Pearce has gained the most ground, according to Rasmussen Reports, among Republicans and independents. Udall leads in the new poll by 9 percent among independents, but he led among that group by 32 percent in July.

Another reason the gap may be closing is that Pearce, like Republican candidates around the nation, has been hammering his opponent on offshore drilling and nuclear energy — issues on which, in general, Republicans currently tend to be more in line with the American public.

Udall spokeswoman Marissa Padilla said Udall is focused “on listening to New Mexicans and doing what’s right for our state, not on the variety of polls out that come out on any given day.”

“Steve Pearce has a long record of lock-step support of the failed George Bush economic policies that are crushing the New Mexico’s middle class today. Tom Udall will change those policies to make the economy work for our middle class and get America back on track,” Padilla said. “On energy, Tom Udall wants to do it all. He has long backed an energy policy to put our nation on a path towards energy independence by increasing domestic drilling, nuclear development, energy conservation and efficiency and a strong investment in renewables to create the jobs of the future.”

This is the first traditional poll in months to indicate that the margin between Udall and Pearce is anywhere near single digits. An online survey conducted in June had him trailing by eight points, but such polling is usually less accurate than phone surveys.

Other news favors Udall

Not all news is good for Pearce. In July, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee pledged that the group would match the spending of its Democratic counterpart dollar for dollar to help Pearce and seven other Senate candidates around the nation. It did so by challenging senators who could afford it to transfer money from their senate campaigns to the committee.

That effort has failed.

“It has become clear that my call has gone largely unanswered,” Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, the committee’s chairman, said Thursday in a prepared statement. “I have no control over the timing or content of (independent) ads, but I have had no choice but to decrease the total budget for our (independent expenditures) unit.”

There’s other good news for Udall. The Democratic National Committee announced on Thursday that he will speak at next week’s presidential nominating convention in Denver. Udall will join the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and three other Democratic Senate candidates on stage. Each will briefly address the convention.

Udall’s speech will come on Wednesday night, the same night as speeches from Barack Obama’s yet-to-be-announced running mate and Gov. Bill Richardson.

“As a proud Westerner and candidate for United States Senate, it is my honor to take part in this historic convention for change,” Udall said in a prepared statement. “In my home state of New Mexico and around the nation, it’s clear that voters will have a choice between leaders who will fight for our middle class and do what’s right no matter what, or those who choose to stand for the same failed policies of the past.”