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Tuesday, August 31, 2010
King Ahead in AG Race
By Deborah Baker
Copyright © 2010 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Staff Writer
Democratic Attorney General Gary King's lead over his lesser-known Republican challenger, Clovis prosecutor Matt Chandler, is rooted in solid support within his party and bolstered by help from Republicans and independents.
King, a political veteran from a prominent New Mexico family, also was doing significantly better than Chandler among Hispanics in his bid for a second term, according to a new Journal Poll.
"Chandler has an uphill battle here, and would have to raise a lot of money — and spend it well — in order to win this election," said pollster Brian Sanderoff.
Still, Sanderoff said, King cannot take re-election on Nov. 2 for granted.
Nineteen percent of voters remained undecided, the poll found. And this is a year in which GOP candidates will, even more than usual, benefit from an anti-Democrat sentiment, Sanderoff said.
Poll respondents were asked whom they would vote for if the election were today: 48 percent said King and 33 percent said Chandler.
The poll showed King with the support of 71 percent of the Democrats polled and Chandler with the support of 71 percent of the Republicans polled.
King also racked up support from 16 percent of the Republicans, while Chandler had 10 percent of Democrats.
"The challenger hasn't spent much yet. He's not well-known around the state," Sanderoff said. "There's little reason to expect him to perform well among Democrats at this time. Gary's been around the block, he's from a prominent political family."
Among independent voters polled, King had 40 percent and Chandler 27 percent — with 31 percent undecided.
The candidates were neck-and-neck among Anglo voters: each had 41 percent.
But there was a big gap between the candidates in the category of Hispanic voters: King had 62 percent of Hispanics polled, and Chandler 22 percent.
King is the son of the late Bruce and Alice King. Bruce King was New Mexico's longest-serving governor with three nonconsecutive terms. The younger King spent 12 years in the Legislature, worked for the U.S. Department of Energy and ran unsuccessfully for governor and for Congress.
Chandler has been a prosecutor since 2002 and in 2004 was elected as the 9th Judicial District Attorney, for Roosevelt and Curry counties.
He has strong roots in that area. His father, Caleb Chandler, is a retired police chief and a former Democratic state senator.
The Journal Poll showed Chandler with the support of 50 percent of voters from New Mexico's east side, which includes Clovis. King had 37 percent of voters from that area.
But King had a stronger showing in the north central region — heavily Hispanic and Democratic — with 59 percent of respondents to Chandler's 24 percent.
The Journal Poll is based on telephone interviews conducted statewide from Aug. 23-27 with 942 likely voters. The margin of error for the full, statewide sample of 942 voters is plus or minus 3 percentage points. The margin of error grows for subsamples.
The poll was conducted for the Journal by Research & Polling Inc. of Albuquerque.
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