Another poll has Obama and Udall moving ahead

Another poll suggests growing leads in New Mexico for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and U.S. Senate candidate Tom Udall.

Obama leads Republican opponent John McCain by 11 percentage points — 53 percent to 42 percent — and Udall leads Republican opponent Steve Pearce by 20 points — 57 percent to 37 percent — among likely voters in New Mexico in the Public Policy Polling survey released today.

The survey of 1,037 likely voters was conducted Wednesday through Friday and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

One highlight of the poll was McCain’s 2-point lead — 49 percent to 47 percent — among white voters, compared to Obama’s 14-point lead — 59 percent to 35 percent — among Hispanics.

“New Mexico is probably the state Bush took in 2004 that Barack Obama will have the easiest time winning this time around,” Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling, said in a news release. “Part of this large lead may be a product of last week’s economic crisis but, even if things return to normal, this is a place where the Democrats are going to have a significant advantage.”

This is the second poll showing Udall’s lead increasing after Pearce cut it to single digits in recent weeks. Last week, a SurveyUSA poll had Udall ahead by 15 points.

It’s the third consecutive poll to suggest that Obama is moving ahead in New Mexico. Last week, two independent polls showed him ahead, one by 7 points and the other by 8 points.