GOP presidential hopeful John McCain is riding a 14-point bump in the latest presidential polling of North Dakota voters, the first since the Republican convention and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's vice presidential nomination.

A Rasmussen poll released Wednesday shows voters favoring McCain 55 percent to his Democratic opponent Barack Obama's 41 percent.

That's an expected outcome following the Republican convention that featured Palin's entrance into the race, said University of North Dakota political science professor Mark Jendrysik.

"A lot of people who were lukewarm to (McCain) probably got fired up after he picked Sarah Palin," Jendrysik said.

Female voters are now favoring McCain by nine points, according to the poll, a demographic that favored Obama by 11 points in July.

Jendrysik said the addition of Palin to the GOP ticket has helped McCain, but he added that Obama is cutting into a state that McCain's campaign probably considers safe.

Obama is one of the first Democratic presidential nominees "to have any organization" in North Dakota in quite sometime, Jendrysik said.

Obama has nine campaign offices throughout the state.

North Dakota voters split on Obama's choice for his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, with 35 percent saying it was the right choice and 35 percent saying otherwise, according to the poll.

Meanwhile, the poll said 58 percent of North Dakota voters say Palin was the right choice for McCain with 27 percent opposing her nomination.

Senator visiting N.D.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., will be in Grand Forks on Sunday and Fargo on Monday addressing women's issues, the Obama campaign announced Thursday.

AFL-CIO backs opponents

In an unusual move, the North Dakota AFL-CIO endorsed both candidates for Public Service Commission at its convention earlier this month.

After a split vote in its decision on which candidate to back, the labor union decided to support both Republican Brian Kalk and Democrat -NPL candidate Cheryl Bergian, said Roger Timm, Kalk's campaign manager.

Timm said Kalk was one vote away from securing the two-thirds majority that would have given him the entire endorsement.

In other endorsement news, the North Dakota Right to Life Association declared its support for GOP congressional candidate Duane Sand this week.

The Great Plains Tribal Chairman's Association also announced their support for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Sept. 5.

Funds for UTTC secured

The United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck will get $745,200 in federal funds to improve its campus and for community outreach.

The funds stem from a grant awarded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

(Reach reporter Brian Duggan at 223-8482 or brian.duggan@;bismarcktribune.com.)