Albuquerque – New Mexico’s incumbent Democratic governor, Bill Richardson, is leading Republican challenger John Dendahl, according to a poll printed Monday.
A survey of 674 registered voters statewide found 57 percent said they would cast ballots for Richardson in the Nov. 7 general election, the Albuquerque Journal reported in a copyright story.
The poll, commissioned by the Journal and conducted by Research & Polling Inc. of Albuquerque, found 28 percent would vote for Dendahl, a former state GOP chairman from Santa Fe.
Another 11 percent of voters were undecided or declined to say who they would cast ballots for, and 4 percent said they would not cast ballots for either candidate.
The telephone survey, conducted Aug. 25-31, had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
The Republican Party selected Dendahl as its gubernatorial nominee to replace JR Damron, a Santa Fe physician who withdrew less than two weeks after the June 6 primary election.
Richardson had a bit less than $5 million in his campaign account as of July 1, compared with $58,506 for Dendahl.
“He (Dendahl) comes in late, he doesn’t have much money, and he is a controversial figure,” said F. Chris Garcia, political science professor emeritus at the University of New Mexico.
Dendahl was best known as a combative partisan during his eight years as Republican state chairman.
“Dendahl did not hesitate to express opinions that were strong and controversial and polarizing,” said Brian Sanderoff, president of Research & Polling.
Richardson leads Dendahl in every region of the state, among men and women, among Anglos and Latinos, among all age groups and every income level, the poll found.
Among voters who described themselves as conservatives, 44 percent said they would cast ballots for Dendahl and 40 percent said they would vote for Richardson.
Richardson’s support among conservatives shows that his political strategy of trying to appeal to as many voters as possible is paying off, Sanderoff and Garcia said.
“He has done things to appeal to conservatives,” Garcia said. “His camp has known he has to appeal to a broad spectrum. They have been broadcasting his tax cuts, and that seems to be the main thing.”
Dendahl had support of 53 percent of Republican voters, while 30 percent said they would back Richardson.
“Dendahl has to unify his own party, to get Republicans who are supporting Richardson to come back to his party,” Sanderoff said.
Richardson was supported by 78 percent of the Democratic voters who were surveyed.
