Watch out Chet, the Boogeyman is Catching up!

I guess the Iowa Liberal Blogsphere was all wrapped in Harkin Steaky Fry-ness that they failed to mention the latest poll in the Des Moines Register on the Governor's race. Thanks to Krusty for posting first.

A new Des Moines Register poll shows Democrat Chet Culver and Republican Jim Nussle are tied, 44 percent to 44 percent, among likely voters at this stage of the statewide contest.

Ready to break the unusual tie are the 10 percent of Iowans who say they definitely will vote in the Nov. 7 election but are undecided on a candidate at this point.

Here's an interesting site that shows the trends in past polls on the race. Both candidates have been rising at about the same rate until August when Culver has fallen a bit and Nussle has picked up ground.

The poll also mentions that 16% of the people polled said they view Nussle as very unfavorably, while just 10% have the same opinion of Culver. As more people hear about the real Jim Nussle and hear about his abyssmal record in Washington, the more people that will be turned away.

The Register mentioned a similar poll back in 1998...

It was a much different story at this stage of the wide-open governor's race of 1998. Democrat Tom Vilsack trailed Republican Jim Ross Lightfoot by 20 points in a mid-September Iowa Poll. Vilsack came on strong at the end of the campaign and pulled out the victory.

As you can tell, a lot can change in the last 2 months. It is mid-September and it seems we are tied at 0-0.

**Update**
Check out this post by Iowa Ennui for more discussion about the latest poll numbers.