Remember, the odds are the current snapshot in time, not a prediction on how the race will eventually finish.

GOP LT. GOVERNOR PRIMARY--John Sanchez goes off at 2-1 ($2 wager pays $4), Kent Cravens also goes off at 2-1, and Brian Moore goes off at 5-1 so a $2 wager would pay $10. Santa Fe's JR Damron is the long shot, going off at 20 to 1 odds. (ABQ nurse Bea Sheridan is no longer in the race.) Sanchez was the GOP Guv nominee in '02 and can self-finance a campaign. State Senator Cravens is popular in the important GOP ABQ NE Heights.

THE CONGRESSIONAL RACES

ABQ SEAT--Dem US Rep. Martin Heinrich goes off as the 7-5 favorite. Those wagering on the Congressman must bet $7 to win $5, while those wagering on Republican Jon Barela bet $5 to win $7. Neither Heinrich or Barela have opposition in their June primary contests. Barela has to raise a lot of money to make this competitive and he needs a mistake from the so-far mistake free Heinrich.

SOUTHERN SEAT--Pick-Em. The race between Dem US Rep. Harry Teague and Republican Steve Pearce is an even money bet. A $2 wager wins $2, plus the original bet. If they put a gun to your head and forced you to pick, you might say the incumbent takes it, but that's based on past history, not current conditions.

NORTHERN SEAT--Dem US Rep. Ben Ray Lujan goes off as the prohibitive 1-9 favorite. Those betting on the Congressman lay $9 to win $1, while those wagering the GOP lay $1 to win $9. Lujan has to challenge himself. Will he put together a legendary career or a pedestrian one?

PROPOSITION BETS

The guys and gals also wanted to add to the fun by offering what are known as "proposition bets" or side bets on some non-candidate election year action. Here are our favorites.

RICHARDSON APPROVAL RATING ON LABOR DAY, 2010: Odds are 2-1 it will be 50% or higher, even money for a bet that it will be in the 40's and the odds are 3 to 1 that it will be below 40%. (Bill was at 51% approval in the last ABQ Journal poll conducted in Sept.)

RICHARDSON LEAVES BEFORE HIS TERM EXPIRES ON DEC. 31--The line setters are calling this an even money bet, which sounds surprising given all the controversy that has surrounded the Guv. But Obama did invite him to his first state dinner and that had the Gators dropping the odds on the Guv getting out of here.

NM GENERAL ELECTION VOTER TURNOUT--Odds are 2-1 if you bet that it will be 65 percent or more of registered voters and even money if between 55% and 65%. The odds go up to 3-1 if you wager that turnout falls below 50% of registered voters. (There are currently about 1,119,000 registered voters).

GOP GUV CANDIDATE SPENDS MORE THAN DENISH--You get 10 to 1 odds if you think the R's will muster enough cash to outspend Di. She's already raised $2 million.

SOUTHERN CONGRESS SHOCKER: What if the highly touted Teague-Pearce congressional race turns into a bust and one of the contenders wins by 10 points or more? Our odds makers will give you 10 to one odds if you bet that either Teague or Pearce will score 55% or more. Actually, given how often close elections turn lopsided, those odds seem among the best offered.

As we said, all these odds are a snapshot in time--how we think the races would go if the election were held right now. We'll post an updated version following the mid-March pre-primary conventions and compare them to this one.

REST OF THE RACES

We haven't set the line yet for the state land commission race. There are a number of R and Dem candidates, but the races for attorney general, state treasurer, state auditor and secretary of state start the year as a bust. There are still no announced GOP candidates for those offices. We think a couple will emerge, but the state party needs to get busy recruiting. Meanwhile, a reader offers some speculation on why the R's aren't getting these races off the ground:

Maybe the R's aren't getting the commitment from rich Texan Bob Perry in 2010 that they previously got. In 2008, Bob wrote campaign checks to the New Mexico Republican Party totaling $240,000. In the 2006 cycle, the Perry's dropped a total of $361,000 into the state. The contributions included $125,000 to Vickie Perea, GOP secretary of state candidate $75,000 to Jim Bibb, Republican nominee for attorney general candidate and $70,000 to Demesia Padilla, the GOP treasurer candidates.

The state GOP appears to have made a decision to concentrate solely on the Guv's race when it comes to the statewide office. But by ignoring the lower ballot races they miss an opportunity to pump up GOP turnout. More important, it reveals that the party's efforts to rebuild after two devastating election cycles here has a very long way to go.

ON THE TRAIL

On the campaign trail in Roswell, Los Angeles Times politics correspondent Mark Barabak takes the early temperature on the hot congressional race between Dem Rep. Teague and GOP challenger Pearce:

Teague, motoring the long stretch between small towns, said he considered issues on the merits; he opposed the health care bill because he doubts it will extend affordability. He supported the "cap-and-trade" bill to fight global warming after winning concessions to help small refiners and electrical co-ops.

"Making everybody happy in a district this big and diverse probably isn't going to happen," Teague said.

He professes not to worry about the shifting tide, but others do: the Democratic congressional campaign arm has placed Teague in its incumbent-protection program...

And there will be more to come, much more, on what will be one of the marquee congressional races in 2010.