Baca’s poll has him ahead of Lyons

A recent poll paid for by Jim Baca has the Democrat ahead of incumbent Republican Pat Lyons in the land commissioner race by five percentage points.

Despite that, Baca writes on his blog that “the thought of (Lyons’) bank roll is scary.”

Lyons has $488,892 in the bank, according to campaign finance reports filed Thursday. Baca, who faced a primary while Lyons did not, has $6,977 in the bank, and an unpaid debt of $12,100 to himself.

The poll has Baca up with 38 percent of the vote to Lyons’ 33 percent, and 29 percent undecided. Among those registered independent of a political party, Baca has 34 percent of the vote to Lyons’ 22 percent, with 43 percent undecided, according to the poll.

Lyons faces a name-recognition problem, the poll found, even though he’s been in office for four years. Some 70 percent of voters have no opinion of him or have never heard of him. Baca is a former land commissioner, Albuquerque mayor and head of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

The poll was conducted by Lake Research Partners by phone from June 27-29. Some 400 adults who are registered to vote were polled.

The margin of error is 4.9 percent, which means the race could be a bit closer than the poll indicates, or it could be worse for Lyons.