Daily Kos Elections Polling Wrap: Polls hint at a growing House battleground

On a quiet polling Friday, one result out of the Heartland definitely qualified as headline news. You see, few people had freshman Republican Rep. Kristi Noem high on the endangered list in South Dakota's lone House seat. And yet, if a new independent poll out of the state is to be believed, she is locked in an absolute coin toss of a race when paired with Democratic nominee Matt Varilek, a former staffer to Sen. Tim Johnson.

On a day when the rest of the polling numbers fit in the realm of "as-expected," that one was a pretty unexpected result.

On to the numbers:

PRESIDENTIAL GENERAL ELECTION TRIAL HEATS:

NATIONAL (Gallup Tracking): Obama d. Romney (47-45)

NATIONAL (Rasmussen Tracking): Romney d. Obama (47-43)

SOUTH DAKOTA (Nielson Brothers): Romney d. Obama (49-43)

DOWNBALLOT POLLING:

IN-SEN (Rasmussen): Richard Mourdock (R) 42, Joe Donnelly (D) 40

SD-AL (Nielson Brothers): Rep. Kristi Noem (R) 47, Matt Varilek (D) 46

WV-03 (Anzalone-Liszt for Rahall): Rep. Nick Rahall (D) 62, Rick Snuffer (R) 34

A few thoughts, as always, await you just past the jump ...