Georgia Governor 2010

Casey Cagle 44
Roy Barnes 43

John Oxendine 43
Roy Barnes 42

Casey Cagle 44
Jim Marshall 39

John Oxendine 44
Jim Marshall 38

Folks who follow Georgia politics already knew that the 2010 race for Governor was wide open, and this poll just provides more evidence of that.

Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle and Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine would each lead former Governor Roy Barnes by a point in a hypothetical 2010 match up. Oxendine would lead Congressman Jim Marshall by six points and Cagle would lead him by five points.

It's hard to decide whether this data provides good news for Barnes or not. On the one hand any time a Democrat is polling close in this Republican state it's a good thing for that individual. At the same time numbers at this stage are a function of name recognition more than anything else, and you might expect Barnes to have the lead in these hypothetical match ups by virtue of his higher profile from his previous tenure in the Governor's office.

The other preliminary conclusion you can make from this data is that there is no difference in general election viability between Cagle and Oxendine on the Republican side.

And of course we don't know who of these folks will really end up running and what other viable candidates might end up entering the fray over the course of 2009.

Full results here.