Civitas Poll: the federal stuff

Here are the highlights of this month's Civitas Poll:

-They included Mike Huckabee in the question on the Republican presidential race and he finished tied for second. That's good enough for us. He'll be in the next PPP tracking poll. Rudy Giuliani continues to lead while Fred Thompson's free fall continues. He went from 25% in September to 19% in October and now 12% this month.

-On the Democratic side all three of the main contenders saw their support drop from the October poll, while the number of folks unsure saw a significant increase. The opposite trend is supposed to occur as the election gets closer so I'm not sure what's happening there. Hillary Clinton maintains a solid lead.

-They asked some match up questions for the presidential race in North Carolina. Giuliani leads Clinton 45-41, Mitt Romney leads Clinton 43-42, and Clinton leads Thompson 43-42. What's interesting about that is they asked respondents which of the Democratic contenders was most electable. Nearly half said Clinton- but when asked the head to head question she didn't fare all that well. I wonder if Barack Obama or John Edwards would have done better, which would have shown that while respondents think Clinton is more electable in general she is not more electable to them.

-US Senate matchups showed Elizabeth Dole with a 46-29 lead over Kay Hagan and a 47-27 lead over Jim Neal.