Sunday polls: Trying to find interesting governor races

• New Mexico stays close

SUSA released a poll from New Mexico and its 5 electoral votes today. Clinton runs ahead of Obama, and only John McCain manages to win a match-up against her:

• McCain leads Clinton 48% to 45%. But Clinton leads Giuliani 48% to 44%, Romney 52% to 40%, and Huckabee 53% to 39%.
• Obama, on the other hand, is far behind Giuliani (49% to 41%) and McCain (50% to 40%). He is ahead of Romney 49% to 41% and Huckabee, 50% to 38%.

These numbers represent a small improvement for Clinton on last month's numbers when she was narrowly trailing Giuliani. They also contradict my theory that Hillary tends to run stronger than Obama in the Northeast and in the South, and Obama tends to run stronger in the Southwest. Clearly, New Mexico will be as closely fought as 2000 (when Gore won by 300 votes) and 2004 (when Bush won by 6000 votes).

• Indiana Governor in trouble

With Louisiana and Kentucky resolving their governor elections last month, there are not that many competitive gubernatorial contests coming up in the next few months -- only Missouri, Indiana and Washington are ranked competitive in my latest governor rankings. A new poll out today shows that Governor Daniels of Indiana is in big trouble, tied with his two lesser-known challengers, and way under the 50% threshold.

Former congresswoman Jill Long-Thompson and architect Jim Schellinger both get 44% of the vote, and Daniels gets 43% against both challengers -- a bad omen to be led this far out of Election Day. Daniels approval rating stands at 40%. There was a lot of noise about this race earlier in the year and last year, and Democrats pick-ed 3 House seats in Indiana alone last year, demonstrating the unpopularity of the state GOP. But Republicans were arguing that Daniels had recovered some support and was less of a drag, though that apparently is not the case at all.