Poll: 3 of 4 voters say finances same or worse

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Three out of four New Mexico voters feel their personal finances are the same or worse than before the recession took hold four years ago, according to a poll released on Tuesday.

The poll commissioned by The Albuquerque Journal ( http://bit.ly/OcC9EY ) found that 39 percent of voters said their finances were the same, while 37 percent said they were worse off. Twenty-three percent said they were better off. Two percent of those surveyed said they didn't know.

The New Mexico economy has been slow to show some of the average job growth in the nation as a whole. But New Mexico's unemployment rate has remained lower than the national average, most recently at 6.6 percent in July, compared with the national average of 8.3 percent that month.

"If you think about it, most people have been in that same job the last four years. They're trying to lay low. They may have had a few years of a salary freeze," Journal pollster Brian Sanderoff said. "They're sort of about the same, so that didn't surprise me."

The poll was conducted Sept. 3-6 by Research & Polling Inc. The survey is based on land line and cellphone interviews with 402 likely voters statewide. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

The question of whether voters are better off looms large in this year's presidential election, with the economy being a central debate between Republican challenger Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama as he seeks a second four-year term in the White House.

A statewide poll commissioned by The Journal and released on Sunday shows Obama with a relatively small lead over Romney in New Mexico and 8 percent of voters still undecided. That poll showed that 45 percent of those surveyed backed Obama and 40 percent supported Romney. Another 7 percent backed the Libertarian candidate for president, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson.

The presidential-race poll of 667 likely voters in New Mexico was conducted Sept. 3-6 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

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Information from: Albuquerque Journal