{"id":2079,"date":"2007-08-08T15:19:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-08T21:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/guv-falls-against-giuliani-gains-against-thompson\/"},"modified":"2007-08-08T15:19:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-08T21:19:00","slug":"guv-falls-against-giuliani-gains-against-thompson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/guv-falls-against-giuliani-gains-against-thompson\/","title":{"rendered":"Guv falls against Giuliani, gains against Thompson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A new Rasmussen Reports poll<\/a> out today has Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> losing ground in a potential head-to-head match up with GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani<\/a> but gaining ground against another GOP candidate, Fred Thompson<\/a>. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The new poll finds that, in a head-to-head contest, 47 percent of likely voters picked Giuliani, while 39 percent picked Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>. The eight-point lead is greater than the six-point edge Giuliani had over Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> in the group\u2019s June poll<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Thompson, in the new poll, had a one-point lead over Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, 41 percent to 40 percent. Two months ago, he led Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> by eight points.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The newest survey of 1,200 likely voters was conducted Aug. 3-5 and has a margin of error of 2.9 percent.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Other responses in the survey present a clearer picture of voter attitudes. Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> is viewed as politically moderate by 34 percent of those surveyed \u2013 far more than the number who see him as conservative or liberal. Giuliani is seen as moderate by 45 percent \u2013 also far more than the number who see him as conservative or liberal.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Moderates like Giuliani over Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Thompson is viewed by 43 percent as conservative, while 23 percent said he\u2019s moderate and 6 percent said he\u2019s liberal. More moderates would pick Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> over Thompson than they would the governor over Giuliani.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That might put a dent in Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>\u2019s argument that he\u2019s the most electable among the Democrats. Perhaps that depends on who gets the GOP nomination.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> has a bigger problem: He\u2019s still unknown to about a third of likely voters. However, his numbers have improved slightly since June. Those who view him favorably have increased from 33 percent to 35 percent, and those who view him unfavorably have decreased from 39 percent to 32 percent.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Upcoming schedule includes two forums<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> won\u2019t likely gain any moderate or conservative points by participating in a candidate forum on Thursday sponsored by the gay-rights group Human Rights Campaign<\/a>, but primaries aren\u2019t about those voters. After wrapping up a visit to New Hampshire<\/st1:state> today he\u2019ll head to California<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> for the forum, which begins at 7:15 p.m. MST on Thursday. I think you\u2019ll be able to watch it live online by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:city> will stay in California<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> to campaign through Friday. He has no public events scheduled Saturday and Sunday, and will spend Monday in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

From Tuesday to Aug. 19, Richardson<\/st1:city> will be in Iowa<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> to campaign. He\u2019ll attend a candidate debate sponsored by the DNC<\/a> to be held on the 19th at 7 p.m. MST. It will be the second DNC-sponsored debate of the 2008 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

\n

Lives wasted in Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>?<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Richardson<\/st1:city> is taking heat for a speech he was to give today in New Hampshire<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. Among the prepared remarks released in advance of today\u2019s speech to educators, according to the Associated Press<\/a>, was this quote:<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to get out of Iraq<\/st1:country-region>, where precious lives and needed dollars have been wasted,\u201d Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> was to say. \u201cWe could use these resources to improve our schools and make the economy, once again, work for the middle class.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

State GOP<\/a> spokesman Scott Darnell brought the quote to my attention.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cIs he actually saying that the lives of our soldiers who have died in Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> have been wasted? I wonder what the families of our fallen soldiers would say about such an ignorant statement,\u201d Darnell wrote in an e-mail. \u201cNo soldier \u2018wastes\u2019 his\/her life when they\u2019re fighting to protect the American people. These men and women have performed admirably, and are doing an outstanding job \u2013 and neither their missions nor their lives are \u2018wasted.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The quote was part of prepared remarks, so it was a calculated statement by the Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> campaign. It could certainly be interpreted to mean soldiers\u2019 lives are being wasted, or it could be a reference to civilian deaths, or both.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Either way, I\u2019m guessing Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> will have to explain this one. Democratic presidential candidate Mike Gravel<\/a> took a lot of heat from within his own party for saying that soldiers killed in Vietnam<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> died in vain, but he stood by the assertion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new Rasmussen Reports poll out today has Gov. Bill Richardson losing ground in a potential head-to-head match up with GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani but gaining ground against another GOP candidate, Fred Thompson. The new poll finds that, in a head-to-head contest, 47 percent of likely voters picked Giuliani, while 39 percent picked Richardson. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2079\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}