Romney Surges in New Mexico

Usually we confine our reporting on political races to the midwest but this poll taken last week by left leaning PPP caught my eye. New Mexico was considered to be an Obama slam dunk and was marked dark blue on both Karl Rove's and Real Clear Politics electoral maps. The top line is Obama leads Romney by 5 points, much closer than a earlier poll done in April showing Obama to be leading by 14% but some of the details should cause bed wetting in the Obama camp. For instance;

    "Mitt Romney appears to have closed much of the 14 point gap between
himself and President Obama that PPP measured in its last survey in April. Obama now
leads by only 5 points in the land of enchantment, 49% to 44%. This comes along with a
drastically reduced net approval rating for the president, down to even from a +9 mark 3 months ago. Romney’s favorability has seen a positive shift from an abysmal -22 rating
in that survey, and now stands at -9, 41% to 50%.
This change comes in spite of relatively level support for the president among
Independents at +9, compared to +11 from the April poll. Instead the movement comes
from a drop in the support he receives from within his own party. 21% of Democrats said
that they preferred Romney in the presidential race, up from 12% in April"

Why do 21% of Democrats prefer Romney? Obama scrapped existing immigration law to pander to this state and this is the thanks he gets. How did the new illegal immigration policy play with Hispanic voters? Well..... Obama leads by 22% but he led by 37% in the last poll. Overall 46% of voters disapprove of Obama's immigration policy while 41% support it.
If former Governor Gary Johnson, running as a Libertarian is put into the race it hurts Obama more than Romney. Then the breakdown would be; Obama 42% Romney 38%, and Johnson 13%. This means Obama must spend money he doesn't have to defend what was thought to be a safe state.