A new University of Washington poll shows that in a general election between Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, voters here would be evenly split between the two New Yorkers. That would make Giuliani the most popular Republican here since Ronald Reagan.

But what may be most interesting in the latest results from the Washington Poll is that among Democrats, Clinton leads Barack Obama 44 percent to 29 percent. But in a hypothetical match between Obama and Giuliani, Obama leads 50-42.

That's because Obama does better than Clinton or Giuliani among independent voters. Matt Barreto, one of the UW political science professors collaborating on the poll, tells me:

Hillary is preferred by Democrats, but overall, Obama has higher favorability ratings among the entire electorate. Notice on the crosstabs, slide 6, that Hillary does better among Dems, but among the Independents, Obama makes up huge ground. Hillary loses to Rudy by 10 points among Independents, while Obama beats Rudy by half a point among Independents.

You can see more on the Washington Poll here.