Obama 43 – McCain 45 in Indiana; Daniels still leads

The latest poll numbers in Indiana are out – according to a just-released Howey-Gauge poll, Hoosiers are evenly divided in their support for John McCain and Barack Obama:

Hoosiers are likely to find themselves at the American political epicenter over the next 60 days as the latest Howey-Gauge Poll shows Republican John McCain with a 45-43 percent lead over Democrat Barack Obama

It doesn’t look like they’ve released the full crosstabs, but the article has a lot more information to dig through, with some interesting implications for Barack Obama and his upcoming visit to Indiana.

Now, for the bad news:

Mitch Daniels – 53
Jill Long Thompson – 35

Again, I haven’t had time to delve into these numbers at all, but this is bad news for a poll this late in the season:

In the gubernatorial race, Democrat Jill Long Thompson faces a dilemma similar to what she faced in the primary. Her total awareness stood at 77 percent, up from 41 percent in February and 59 percent in April. While that number increased, her favs and unfavs both increased 10 percent from 22/9 in April to 32/19 in August.

Also, it appears that Mitch is edging toward that magic “50” on the re-elect question. I’ll have more on this later.