Next door being…New Mexico, where former Las Cruces DA Susana Martinez maintains her lead in the polls for the governor’s race.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez’s lead over Democrat Diane Denish has grown to 10 points, and Martinez has also reached the all-important 50 percent threshold, according to a new poll conducted for her campaign.

The poll, conducted Sept. 11-13, had Martinez leading 50 percent to 40 percent. The survey of 600 likely voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Yep, it’s an internal poll—but it’s not the only one showing Martinez with a lead. The Albuquerque Journal has Martinez leading by 6, Rasmussen by 7 and Magellan Strategies (a Republican polling firm) by 1.

Here is how Real Clear Politics describes New Mexico politically:

For years, New Mexico was an island of Democratic-leaning voting in the rock-ribbed Republican Mountain West. Republicans haven’t controlled the state Senate since the 1920s, nor have they won the state House since the 1950s. The state has a Hispanic plurality, many of whose families have lived in the Land of Enchantment since what is now New Mexico was simply a part of Mexico. Geographically, the counties in the north are heavily Hispanic, the counties in the southeast are mostly Republican, and the city of Albuquerque and its suburbs are a Democratic-leaning swing area.

Who knows? Maybe, on the first Wednesday in November, there will be three ladies guarding America’s southwest border—Meg Whitman to our west, Susana Martinez to our east, and Jan Brewer here at home.

Meanwhile, in Florida, GOP Senate nominee Marco Rubio seems to be doing quite well.

2010 doesn’t look like a good year for political stereotypes…eh, Dolores?