New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson now trails the two leading GOP candidates by three percentage points or less.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Election 2008 shows former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani leading Richardson 43% to 40%. Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson is just a point ahead of Richardson, 42% to 41%.

Richardson garnered only 35% support in a June match-up with Thompson, but by early August reached 40% and trailed Thompson by just a point.

Richardson was eight points behind Giuliani in August. But he has slowly gained ground on Giuliani all year, climbing from a low of 34% even as Giuliani’s support slipped from a high of 52%.

Richardson draws some 70% of Democrats in each match-up. His Republican opponents do only a little better with their base, drawing 74% from GOP voters.

Richardson has been plagued by various gaffes on the campaign trail.

But some pundits believe he is making headway by insisting that as president he would end the war in Iraq with "no residual troops"—as opposed to the more gradual wind-down proposed by other Democrats.

Nonetheless, voters don't usually see the governor as more left-leaning than the top Democratic contenders. While he is still unknown to more than a third of the electorate, voters who do have an idea of his politics tend to regard him as moderate. And moderates prefer Richardson by at least a ten-point margin in each of the current match-ups. By contrast, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards are each seen as liberal by at least a plurality of voters.

Richardson is now viewed favorably by 32%, unfavorably by 32%, with 36% Not Sure. That makes him much less known than the top-tier GOP contenders, but much better known than Republican runners-up like Congressman Tom Tancredo and former Senator Mike Gravel.

Rudy Giuliani is now viewed favorably by 49%, unfavorably by 46%, his weakest showing all year. Fred Thompson is favorably viewed by 45%, unfavorably by 40%.

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