Obama gaining on McCain in new poll of Arizonans

Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain: Photo by Getty ImagesThere's good news and bad news for Sen. John McCain in the most recent poll put out jointly by ASU's Cronkite School of Journalism and KAET. The good news is that, since February, Arizonans have changed their minds on who they think will win in November, now putting McCain ahead of Sen. Barack Obama. The bad news is that among voters in his own state, McCain now enjoys a relatively slim nine point lead over the Illinois senator. Sen. Hillary Clinton has moved up six points since February but still trails by a big margin, 53 to 37 percent.

However, in the article accompanying the poll said, its conductor, Dr. Bruce Merill, said, "Sen. McCain will win in his home state this November regardless of who the Democrats nominate."

Additionally, attitudes about local and state officials were examined in the poll, and the result is a strong feeling of support for Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, who was rated favorably among 65 percent of respondents who had an opinion. Among those same respondents, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio found support by 69 percent of them and MC Attorney Andrew Thomas had a 70 percent favorable rating.

Gov. Janet Napolitano was the biggest winner, however, earning good or excellent marks from 76 percent of those surveyed.

The poll was conducted among 577 registered voters statewide, the majority of whom lived in Maricopa County.

Full poll results.

ALSO on PolitickerAZ.com:

• POLL | Will Barack Obama be able to close the polling gap with John McCain?