Few undecided on guv

The battle to become Utah's next governor may very well not be decided by "undecided" voters.

According to a new Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll by Dan Jones and Associates, only 8 percent of voters are undecided about whom to support in the governor's race — Democrat Scott Matheson Jr. or Republican Jon Huntsman Jr.

That is a small number this early in the final campaign season. And it means Matheson can't just work on the "undecideds" and expect to top Huntsman. It means Matheson has to change some minds — namely those of independent voters who are leaning toward Huntsman, poll results indicate.

Jones found that if the election were held today, 51 percent support Huntsman while 38 percent like Matheson. The new results almost mirror a May survey for the newspaper and TV station, when Jones found a 52 to 37 percent Huntsman lead.

Until last month, Matheson was keeping a low profile, letting Republicans slug it out in a hotly contested, candidate-rich state convention and later at the closed GOP primary. Only in the past couple of weeks has Matheson begun running radio ads and rolling out an education package, which he calls the cornerstone of his campaign.

By contrast, Huntsman has been out campaigning in some form or another since he returned to Utah last summer after resigning from a trade ambassador job with the Bush administration.

The small number of undecided voters could well be evidence that Huntsman's "campaign has paid some dividends," campaign manager Jason Chaffetz said.

Matheson does not believe there are only a small number of undecided voters, but rather that "what we are seeing is people's initial reaction to name (identification). There is a lot more campaigning to go, and the race will garner more attention than what it has received over the course of the summer."

According to the poll's demographics, the race could be closer than it appears.

Out of the 920 registered voters polled in the statewide survey, 490 of them said they are very interested in the November general election. And among that group, Huntsman's lead narrows to 49-41 percent, with 7 percent undecided.

As expected, Republicans are solidly behind Huntsman by an 82-10 percent margin. Democrats support Matheson 85-8 percent. The problem for Matheson is there are a whole lot more Republicans (47 percent of those polled said they are Republicans).

Among independent voters, however, Matheson actually leads by a 50-33 percent. And he is particularly strong among independents who have no political preference or who lean Democratic.