Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, left, joined Jerry Brady, the Democratic candidate for Idaho governor, on Wednesday to release a Brady poll that shows the Democrat inching ahead of Republican Butch Otter. Brady's internal poll shows him 2 points of Republican Otter in the Idaho gubernatorial race. (Associated Press)

DFO: Our newspaper endorsed Brady for governor, and I plan to vote for him -- as a protest to Otter running a hide-and-seek campaign and believing he's anointed to be guv, if for no other reasons. But I'm surprised by these numbers. I probably would be more skeptical of them, however, if Otter's people had released their internal polling numbers. When they didn't, I suspected that their numbers show the race close, too.

Question: Why isn't this race a slam dunk for Otter, a man who has spent most of his adult life in public office in a Red State, including the last six years as its congressman?

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