Incumbent Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano is maintaining her comfortable lead in Arizona’s gubernatorial contest. The latest Rasmussen Reports election survey shows Napolitano leading Republican challenger Len Munsil 56% to 38% (see crosstabs).

Napolitano’s lead was 18 over Munsil in July’s potential head-to-head match up (53% to 35%.) The current survey is the first since Munsil’s victory in the Republican primary on September 12th.

Seventeen percent (17%) of voters view Munsil “very favorably” and 16% view him “very unfavorably.” Since he’s become his party’s official candidate, the percentage of those saying they’re not sure how they feel about him has dropped eight points to 19%.

Napolitano continues to enjoy solid scores with more than one-third of voters (37%) reporting “very favorable” opinions of her. Sixteen percent (16%) are at the opposite end of the spectrum. In terms of job approval, 63% approve of her performance as their governor and 35% disapprove.

Lawyers for the Munsil campaign made news this week by calling for an investigation into possible ties among the governor’s campaign, two independent expenditure committees and a nonprofit organization. The Arizona Conservative Trust and the Arizona Values Coalition have been financing attacks on Munsil’s campaign, which is not illegal as long as the sources of their funding are disclosed. Munsil’s lawyers maintain that the Project for Arizona’s Future, which is prohibited from participating in political campaigning due to its Internal Revenue Service tax status, is providing some of the funding to finance the attacks. The lawyers have also linked Napolitano to the Project for Arizona’s Future saying the she has participated in fundraising activities for the group, a claim her campaign does not deny.

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