Poll: Obama's lead shrinking in New Mexico

President Obama's lead is shrinking in New Mexico, according to a new poll from the Democratic-affiliated Public Policy Polling.

Obama leads Mitt Romney by 49 to 44 percent, a dip from the solid 14-point lead he'd had earlier in the year when PPP polled the state in April.

When former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson is included in the poll, Obama leads Romney by 42 to 38 percent. Johnson, who pulls 13 percent support, is running on the Libertarian Party ticket.

The poll could be an outlier: A poll from the conservative pollster We Ask America released earlier this month had Obama up 11 points, and pollsters for former Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.), without saying exactly what the presidential race looked like, said that her internal polls for her Senate race had her out-performing Romney by more than a few points in the state and trailing Democratic Rep. Martin Heinrich by three points.

While the state has seen little polling in months, neither campaign has focused on the state enough for there to be any clear reason why the numbers would have shifted from earlier in the year.

The poll of 724 registered voters in the state was conducted from July 13-16 with a margin of error of 3.64 percentage points.

---