GOP Survey shows Pearce with lead

Former Republican Congressman Steve Pearce, who has outraised freshman incumbent Rep. Harry Teague, in the last two quarters, is now touting polling data which shows him with a slight lead in this year's 2nd Congressional District race.

The Tarrance Group poll, commissioned by Pearce, surveyed 401 likely voters between February 16-18, shows Pearce with a 4 percent lead in the 2010 election -- clearly inside the poll's 4.9 percent margin of error.

However, the good news for Teague, according to National Journal's Hotline On Call blog, is that he continued to outperform the Democrat generic ballot, meaning that some voters who are turned off by the Democrat brand still feel some connection to the Southern New Mexico incumbent.

The bad news is that he's still way below 50%, and the rest of those votes will be hard to make up -- even in a district that has more Democrat voters registered.

Pearce is listed as a "Young Gun" on this NRCC list.