Election 2008 Poll: Richardson Enters Race Even with McCain

[Ron Burgundy]

Rasmussen Reports - New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (D) has announced that he is joining the list of candidates seeking the White House in 2008. Richardson is viewed favorably by 35% of Americans and unfavorably by 27%. A plurality, 38%, don't know enough to have an opinion.

Despite being relatively unknown, Richardson enters the race essentially even with the man many consider to be the Republican frontrunner. The latest Rasmussen Reports election poll shows John McCain (news, bio, voting record) (R) with 43% of the vote, just four points more than Richardson's 39%. However, Richardson trails former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) by double digits, 49% to 34%.

Support for McCain has been declining recently. Data released last week showed the Arizona Senator trailing Barack Obama (D) and John Edwards (D) in general election match-ups for the first time. Prior to that time, McCain had been ahead of every Democrat in our general election polls.

McCain is now viewed favorably by just 52% of American voters. That's down from 56% earlier this month and from 59% in December. His vocal advocacy of increased troop strength in Iraq may be having a negative impact on his popularity. Just one-third of voters (34%) share McCain's view while 56% want to go in the opposite direction and reduce the number of troops in Iraq. However, 94% think the troops will still be fighting in Iraq when the next President takes office.

While McCain has struggled, Giuliani continues to lead all Democrats in Rasmussen Reports polling. He holds modest leads over Senator Hillary Clinton (D), former Vice President Al Gore (D), and former North Carolina Senator John Edwards (D). He holds double digit leads over all other Democrats (see summary).

Giuliani also leads McCain and all other challengers in the competition for the GOP nomination. The Mayor who became known to the nation on 9/11 retains the highest favorability ratings of all candidates. Sixty-five percent (65%) have a favorable opinion of Giuliani while 29% have an unfavorable view.

Clinton and Obama hold the top positions among Democrats.

This national telephone survey of 800 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports January 22-23, 2007. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

Rasmussen Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/rasmussen/20070125/pl_rasmussen/richardsonmccaingiuliani20070125 [link]

[thatguyoverthere]

Wow, I'm surprised at McCain's numbers. It might not matter if he has a lock on the far right wing for the primaries already. But if the Republicans get nervous (and why wouldn't they?) even the right wingers might consider backing Rudy if he looks like a winner, especially if confronted with the prospect of running against Hillary.

Richardson has a lot of room to go up. McCain is a known quantity, and I can't see his numbers jumping up significantly. His age may also now play a factor.

[Thorgrim]

Edwards is polling unusually strong, I don't really get it

Richardson, as you said, has nowhere to go but up, and if its against McCain, game over

Rudy is the GOP's only hope, but a multi-divorced, affair-loving, gun-control, gay-rights, etc new york left of center Republican is going to have a hard time in these primaries

If Rudy does win, Dems are fucked on the SC nominations, but on domestic bills Rudy will sign universal healthcare and a lot of other liberal legislature, so it wouldn't be a total loss

A total loss is someone like Brownback, Newt, Romney, but they'll get fucking hammered by anyone we put up...Hillary sucks only that she's going to limit us from getting 10-20 house seats and 5+ senate seats to breaking even