By Marie Horrigan, CQ Staff

Democrat Tom Udall is maintaining a steady, significant advantage over Republican Steve Pearce in the race to replace retiring New Mexico Sen. Pete V. Domenici , and the Republican Party now appears to be losing interest in holding the seat.

Polling from SurveyUSA conducted Sept. 14-16 indicated Udall leads Pearce 56 percent to 41 percent with 3 percent undecided, while a survey by Rasmussen Reports conducted Aug. 20 indicated Udall led Pearce 51 percent to 41 percent, with 2 percent choosing “other” and 5 percent undecided.

Earlier this month the National Republican Senatorial Committee called off ads for the Senate race, releasing reserved air time that the campaign committee had planned to buy to bolster Pearce’s chances. The decision at least implies that the national party does not think it can hold the seat in November.

Because of these factors CQ Politics is changing its rating on the race from Leans Democratic to the less competitive Democrat Favored.

Heath Haussamen, a political analyst from Las Cruces in southern New Mexico, points out that earlier this month the race tightened due to the confluence of several factors. Republicans enjoyed some bounce in the aftermath of the convention and the popularity of the vice presidential pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin . Pearce also had two surrogates running ads for him in New Mexico — the anti-tax Club for Growth and the Chamber of Commerce — while Udall did not have outside ads.

But since then, independent organizations — including the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund and the League of Conservation Voters — have run ads on Udall’s behalf.

“So I think what you’re seeing is the polls are kind of going back to where they were before several things converged in Pearce’s favor,” Haussamen said.

Udall has raised nearly twice as much money as Pearce and had more than more than five times more cash on hand as of July 1. Udall raised $4.7 million and had $2.9 million on hand through June 30 while Pearce raised $2.7 million and had $532,000 on hand by the same date.