Leftist leads Mexico race, Fox shields economy

by Alistair Bell
MEXICO CITY
Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador edged further ahead on Thursday in Mexico's tight presidential race, and investors' fears that he may damage the economy eased when the government said it was paying $7 billion in debt early.

Two out of three new opinion polls showed Lopez Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City, leading conservative rival Felipe Calderon before the July 2 election.

The biggest of the surveys, in the Milenio newspaper, gave anti-poverty crusader Lopez Obrador 35 percent support, ahead of Calderon's 30 percent. Lopez Obrador's lead had increased from 3 percentage points in a Milenio survey two weeks ago.

As he gains confidence that he could win, Lopez Obrador has gone out of his way to counter critics' claims that he would overspend and take Mexico back to bad old days of currency devaluation, capital flight and mass bankruptcies of the 1980s and 1990s.

"How am I going to fulfill my promise to improve families' incomes by 20 percent?" he said in a television ad on Wednesday night. "Above all I tell you that I will not get the country into debt or raise taxes. It's not necessary."

Often a fiery speaker, Lopez Obrador says he wants good relations with the United States and rejects comparisons to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a vocal U.S. foe.

For most of the last three years, Lopez Obrador has led the race to succeed President Vicente Fox but he fell behind Calderon in April and May after the conservative made television spots in which he accused him of being a dangerous populist.

Calderon has slipped in the polls on allegations that his brother-in-law evaded paying taxes and won elusive government contracts when the candidate was in Fox's cabinet.
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