A quarter of New Hampshire voters don't know who they favor in next year's Senate race, according to a University of New Hampshire Granite State Poll conducted Sept. 25 to Oct. 2.

Among voters with a preference, though, former state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, a Republican, had a 7-point lead over Democratic Rep. Paul W. Hodes, the survey found.

Ayotte led Hodes 40 percent to 33 percent -- a slight increase over her 4 point advantage in a June poll.

Republican Kelly Ayotte is leading Democratic Rep. Paul W. Hodes among unaffiliated voters in New Hampshire's Senate race, according to a Sept. 14 Rasmussen Reports poll of likely voters.

Ayotte, who served as the state's U.S. attorney until she resigned in July to focus on her Senate campaign, received 81 percent support from Republicans and Hodes received 81 percent support from Democrats, but Ayotte led Hodes among unaffiliated voters by 14 points.

In a hypothetical match-up of all voters, Ayotte led Hodes 46 percent to 38 percent with 5 percent of respondents indicating their preference for another candidate and 12 percent undecided. The poll's margin of error is 4.5 percentage points.

The race to fill retiring Sen. Judd Gregg's seat in 2010 is shaping up as a competitive one with Rep. Paul Hodes holding a slight lead if he runs against Charlie Bass and in a statistical tie if his opponent is Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, according to a Research 2000 poll conducted July 13-15.

Hodes leads Bass 42 percent to 37 percent with 19 percent undecided while Ayotte edges Hodes 39 percent to 38 percent with 21 percent undecided. the margin of error is 4 points. When the favorability ratings of the three are tested, the most important figure seems to be the number of people who have no opinion, which ranges from 45 percent for Hodes to 46 percent for bass and 51 percent for Ayotte.

When it comes to three-term Democratic Gov. John Lynch, 61 percent of voters say they would re-elect him in 2010, 24 percent who consider voting for someone else and 15 percent want to replace him.

While Democrats have enjoyed two election cycles where they made huge strides in building their congressional majorities, we've been struck by the series of polls in the last few weeks that show a far grimmer outlook for their gubernatorial colleagues as we approach 2010.

Here's a summary of the last five governor polls we've posted here in Poll Tracker:

• New Hampshire: Three-term Democratic Gov. John Lynch was re-elected by landslides in his last two races and has enjoyed high approval ratings since his first term as New Hampshire governor, but economic and budget challenges have taken some of the luster off his current standing, according to a University of New Hampshire Granite State poll conducted June 24 - July 1.

Three-term Democratic Gov. John Lynch was re-elected by landslides in his last two races and has enjoyed high approval ratings since his first term as New Hampshire governor, but economic and budget challenges have taken some of the luster off his current standing, according to a University of New Hampshire Granite State poll conducted June 24 - July 1.

Lynch still has a favorable-to-unfavorable job approval ratio that other pressed governors would envy - 63 percent to 27 percent - but that's his lowest showing since October 2005 and the first time since then he has dipped below 70 percent. Sixty-two percent have a favorable opinion of Lynch compared to 24 percent who view him unfavorably, a net drop of 21 points.

Democratic Rep. Paul Hodes leaders former GOP Sen. John Sununu by 40 percent to 34 percent with 26 percent undecided in a contest to fill the open seat of retiring Republican Sen. Judd Gregg in 2010, according to an American Research Group poll conducted June 27-29. The margin of error is 4.2 points.

Both enjoy strong support from their respective parties, but they pretty much split unaffiliated voters with Hodes getting 33 percent, Sunun 30 percent and 37 percent undecided. Hodes has an 11 point lead among women, while men are evenly divided.

To see how the 2010 Senate races are shaping up, check out the CQ Politics' election map.

Democratic Rep. Paul Hodes, who has announced he is running for the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Judd Gregg, holds small leads when matched against two potential GOP opponents, but both are well within the margin of error, according to a poll by Dartmouth University's Nelson Rockfeller Center conducted April 27 - May 1.

Hodes leads former Sen. John Sununu, who lost his seat to Jeanne Shaheen last year, by 37.9 percent to 35.4 percent with 26.7 percent undecided. Hodes holds an even smaller lead over former Rep. Charlie Bass - 31.1. percent to 30.1 percent with 38.8 percent undecided. Hodes beat Bass for New Hampshire's 2d district seat in 2006. The margin of error is 5 points.

The poll also measured voter sentiment on the issue of same sex marriage, finding them 44.8 percent to 40.8 percent against it. The New Hampshire Senate voted to legalize same-sex marriage by a narrow 13 to 11 vote last month.

If either former Republican Sen. John E. Sununu or current Republican Sen. Judd Gregg run for the Senate in New Hampshire next year, the GOP would be narrowly favored to hold the seat in the Democratic-trending state, according to a new poll.

A Granite State Poll conducted by The University of New Hampshire Survey Center found Democratic Rep. Paul W. Hodes narrowly trailing Sununu in one potential match-up and significantly trailing Gregg in another.

Two-term Democratic Rep. Paul Hodes has a 42 percent to 36 percent lead over former Republican Sen. John Sununu to fill the seat of GOP Sen. Judd Gregg who has said he was not running for re-election, according to an American Research Group poll conducted March 27-30. Twenty-two percent of voters were undecided and the margin of error was 4.2 points.

Gregg, of course, made other news this year when he was named by President Obama to be Commerce Secretary and then withdrew citing policy differences with the administration. Sununu lost his seat to Democrat Jeanne Shaheen.

Today we update Pennsylvania, California, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Ohio, Nevada and Minnesota in our round-up of general election match-ups between John McCain and Barack Obama. As with the latest national polls, the movement in these polls and the ones we posted yesterday appears to be mostly towards Obama. A Time/CNN/Opinion Research poll said McCain was struggling in states that President Bush won in 2004 such as North Carolina, Ohio, and Indiana.

Visit our Presidential election maps which give you four different ways to look at the race, including one that lets you build your own electoral scenario.

Here's a summary of our race ratings categories. Use this link for background on how we arrive at them

• No Clear Favorite, for races that are deemed to close to call.
• Leans Democratic and Leans Republican, for highly competitive races in which the named party is perceived to have at least a slight edge, but in which an upset is a highly plausible possibility.
• Democrat Favored and Republican Favored, for races in which the named party has a clearer advantage and is likely to win, though an upset cannot be completely ruled out.
• Safe Democratic and Safe Republican, for races in which the named party is viewed as certain to win.

Today we update New Hampshire, Maine, North Carolina and Virginia in our round-up of state Senate race polls.

To keep up with our race ratings, you can also go to our Senate Races to Watch page. Here's a summary of the categories:

• No Clear Favorite, for races that are deemed to close to call.

• Leans Democratic and Leans Republican, for highly competitive races in which the named party is perceived to have at least a slight edge, but in which an upset is a highly plausible possibility.

• Democrat Favored and Republican Favored, for races in which the named party has a clearer advantage and is likely to win, though an upset cannot be completely ruled out.

• Safe Democratic and Safe Republican, for races in which the named party is viewed as certain to win.

Today we update New Mexico, New Hampshire, Nebraska, Kentucky, Montana, Minnesota, Nevada, Washington State and North Carolina. CQ Politics has moved New Mexico out of the "No Clear Favorite" column and into "Leans Democratic."

Visit our Presidential election maps which give you four different ways to look at the race, including one that lets you build your own electoral scenario.

Here's a summary of our race ratings categories. Use this link for background on how we arrive at them

• No Clear Favorite, for races that are deemed to close to call.
• Leans Democratic and Leans Republican, for highly competitive races in which the named party is perceived to have at least a slight edge, but in which an upset is a highly plausible possibility.
• Democrat Favored and Republican Favored, for races in which the named party has a clearer advantage and is likely to win, though an upset cannot be completely ruled out.
• Safe Democratic and Safe Republican, for races in which the named party is viewed as certain to win.

Our latest round-up of match-ups between Barack Obama and John McCain updates Florida, Colorado, New Mexico, Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana, New Hampshire, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Illinois, New Hampshire, Georgia, New Jersey, Connecticut and Ohio. One series of polls that stood out was a new "Big Ten Battleground Poll" co-directed by University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientists. Of six states they surveyed, McCain and Obama were exactly tied or statistically tied in five: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, Iowa and Pennsylvania with only Obama's home state of Illinois being non-competitive. Some of these were also among the 33 updates we posted yesterday. Also, check out CQ Politics' election forecasts for detailed stories on races in each state from the tops of the tickets down. Also go to our Presidential Election Maps to see our calls and use our Scenario Builder to make your own.