Journal Poll: 2 of 3 top races for statewide office are close

...In the land commissioner race, Dunn, a Lincoln County rancher, is threatening the re-election of Ray Powell, the state’s longest-serving land commissioner. While Democrat Powell’s tenure in office has been largely noncontroversial and his campaign “relatively quiet,” Republican Dunn has run an “aggressive, effective” campaign, Sanderoff said. “I think that’s hurt Ray Powell and put him in a place where he is in a competitive race,” the Journal pollster said. Twenty percent of voters polled hadn’t made up their minds about the contest – including 26 percent of those in the Albuquerque area. “It’s not terribly unusual that one in five is undecided, considering it’s a low-profile race,” Sanderoff said. Powell’s strength was in the heavily Democratic north-central region, where he had 59 percent of voters to Dunn’s 26 percent. Dunn, meanwhile, was favored by 61 percent of voters on the state’s more conservative east side, while Powell had the support of 25 percent. Sanderoff attributed much of Dunn’s success in deadlocking the race to a television ad featuring Becky Mullane, former owner of the popular Dixon’s Apple Orchard, attacking Powell for his actions after a wildfire and subsequent flooding destroyed the orchard on state trust land. Sanderoff said the compelling ad personalizes the issue of state land management, and typically a candidate would want to come back with a “spirited defense.” Powell has countered with ads of his own, but they are running on radio and on less expensive cable television, rather than the networks. One of the TV ads has been running for a week, while a second just started; Dunn’s ads began more than a month ago...more