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Barack Obama is shown with an edge against John McCain in a North Dakota presidential race that has narrowed to a statistical tie, according to a new Forum poll. The survey shows Obama squeaking past McCain, 45 percent to 43 percent, a lead that falls within the poll’s margin of error and therefore indicates a dead heat, according to political analysts. Still up for grabs: undecided voters, comprising 12 percent. “It’s a statistical tossup,” said Jim Danielson, co-director of the Public Affairs Institute at Minnesota State University Moorhead, which conducted the statewide telephone survey for The Forum. Pollsters contacted 606...

The presidential campaign of Democrat Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has shrunk its original 18 battleground states strategy to 16 today with word that it is pulling staff from the 11 campaign offices in North Dakota and sending them to other states.Just this week, Obama campaign manager released a map of Obama's battleground states that included North Dakota's 3 electoral college votes as still being contested by the campaign.However, a recent poll by the American Research Group showed Obama's Republican rival Sen. John McCain of Arizona leading 52 to 43 percent. A recent Rasmussen poll has the race in North...

Like neighboring Montana, North Dakota has become a lot friendlier to John McCain in the first polling conducted since Sarah Palin was nominated to be the Republican Vice Presidential nominee. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of North Dakota voters shows McCain with a 14-percentage point lead over Barack Obama, 55% to 41%. In early July, the candidates were tied in the state and Obama was looking to the Dakotas and Montana as a way to expand the electoral map for Democrats. Now, the Democratic nominee appears to be more focused on traditional battleground states. McCain now leads by 22...

A poll conducted from August 23-27 by DFM Research of 400 likely voters shows Obama leading 43% to 40% with 5% Other and 12% Unsure (margin of error +/- 5%). This is the first ND Poll since February showing Obama Leading in North Dakota. (Real Clear Politics has McCain up +3, +1, and +6 in the last 3 polls and Obama up +4 in February) I spoke with Dean Mitchell of DFM Research Today and he stated that the poll was conducted during the DNC Convention with polling ending the day prior to Obama's speech. The full results are listed...

When the Obama camp announced that it was going to make a play for North Dakota, a lot of people scoffed. I, for one, was skeptical. But then we all started taking a look at the ROI — the fact that the Obama camp could throw relative pennies at the state and win enough votes to make it competitive — and started thinking that maybe it was a smart choice to at the very least annoy McCain there. Well, now the polls are suggesting that maybe the Obama team was on to something. A new Research 2000 poll released today...

Barack Obama’s campaign distanced itself Saturday from a liberal talk show host who called John McCain a “warmonger” while introducing the Illinois senator at a North Dakota campaign stop the night before, after the McCain campaign called on Obama to denounce the comment. Local talk show host Ed Schultz used the term to describe the Arizona senator while warming up the crowd in Grand Forks, N.D., before Obama’s arrival at the state’s Democratic convention. .... On Friday, however, Obama thanked Schultz and called him the “voice of progressive radio.”

Mitt Romney has won the GOP caucuses in North Dakota, according to Fox News.

Fox News predicts Barack Obama wins the North Dakota Democratic caucuses.

from Tagg Romney: "I recently returned from a trip to North Dakota and Minnesota, my 21st and 22nd states visited on the campaign trail so far. We had a straw poll in Bismarck, ND and I was a speaker at the GOP round-up. It was a ton of fun to meet so many enthusiastic Republicans. My message could be summed up, as reported in the AP, as, 'Personally, I think the best way to beat Hillary Clinton is not to water down our values, or to try to act more like Hillary Clinton, or try to blur the distinction between...