A new poll, a new result.

The Rasmussen poll, which found Republican Tom Emmer with a slight lead against DFLer Mark Dayton a few weeks ago, finds Dayton with 40 percent to Emmer's 38 percent. Independence Party's Tom Horner brings up the rear with 15 percent.

Recent polls from the Star Tribune and from MPR both gave Dayton a lead outside the margin of error.

Interestingly, the new Rasmussen report poll doesn't include so-called "leaners," the folks who haven't made up their minds but lean toward one candidate or another. When the last Rasmussen poll came out, Horner's folks attacked the inclusion of those leaners.

The pollster writes:

"In the Minnesota governor's race, Rasmussen Reports has made a decision not to use our traditional leaners model. Normally, that model shows support falling off for a third-party candidate. However, in Minnesota, third-party candidates often defy that trend, and a look at the initial preference data suggests that may be happening this year."

The new poll shows a different result for Democratic President Barack Obama's popularity in Minnesota versus Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty's than the poll of two weeks ago.

In the poll from late September, Rasmussen found that 52 percent of voters approved of the job Pawlenty was doing and 48 percent approved of Obama's performance. The poll this week finds that 50 percent of Minnesotans approve of Obama and 49 percent approve of Pawlenty.

All of those numbers are within the poll's 4.5 percent margin of error in September and 4 percent this month but still notable.

The recent poll surveyed 750 likely voters.

Dig into the numbers, including questions on the Tea Party, immigration and favorables for the candidates, here.