Editor’s Note: Here’s a sample from Political Dispatches, the paper’s weekly e-mail newsletter. Polls in the gubernatorial race don’t mean much at this stage, other than to confirm that both candidates have a reasonably good chance of winning. Competitive campaigns don’t always stay that way, as demonstrated by Republican Jim Gilmore in 1997, when what began as an even match with Don Beyer turned into a landslide for the GOP. Still, the odds are that we’re in for a close contest in November.