The WMUR Granite State poll shows Republican Ovide Lamontagne and Democrat Maggie Hassan about even, with neither candidate well known to voters. A quarter of the voters polled said they were still undecided.
Lamontagne, a business lawyer who has run unsuccessfully for Congress, Senate and governor before, and Hassan, a former state senator, are competing to replace Gov. John Lynch. Lynch, a Democrat, is not seeking re-election after four terms.
The telephone poll of 600 likely voters was conducted Sept. 27-30 by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center and had a sampling margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.