Richardson’s internals show him gaining in Iowa, Edwards leading

Gov. Bill Richardson’s (D-N.M.) internal poll numbers released by the campaign Monday afternoon show the governor gaining and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) with a comfortable lead in Iowa.

{mosads}The poll of 500 likely caucus goers conducted for the Richardson campaign shows Edwards leading with 34 percent, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) at 24 percent, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) with 17 percent and Richardson at 13 percent.

Richardson’s pollsters also broke down the likely caucus goers into “likeliest” caucus goers, or voters who attended the caucuses in 2004, voted in last year’s midterms and say they will “definitely” attend next year’s caucuses.

Those results show Richardson moving ahead of Obama 18 percent to 16 percent. In that group, Edwards continues to lead with 31 percent to Clinton’s 23 percent.

The poll was conducted by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin and Associates and has a margin of error of 4.4 percent.