And now back to the horse race…

A new poll between the two presidential frontrunners suggests that Washington is a tossup in next year’s election.

The University of Washington’s Washington Poll reports that an Oct. 22-28 poll of 601 registered voters (margin of error: =/- 4 points) found that 46 percent of the respondents favored Hillary Clinton. The same percentage favored Rudy Giuliani. (In Eastern Washington: Giuliani 58 to Clinton’s 37.)

But when the faceoff is Barack Obama versus Giuliani, the poll found, Obama does well: 50 percent to Giuliani’s 42 percent, with substantially more of the Giuliani voters not feeling strong about it. (Eastern Washington: Giuliani 49 percent to Obama’s 41.)

Among Democrats in the primary, Clinton leads 44 percent to Barack Obama’s 29 and John Edwards’ 16.

Among Republicans, the primary race is tighter: Rudy Giuliani has 34 percent to John McCain’s 19, Fred Thompson’s 16 and Mitt Romney’s 15.

A Powerpoint with more of the poll results is available here.