A Rasmussen poll conducted Wednesday finds Warren leading Brown by two points among likely voters, while the Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling finds Warren leading Brown by six points.
These September 2012 file photos show Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren, left, who is challenging incumbent U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., right, in the November 2012 general election. (AP Photos/File)More politics news
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Two new polls find Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren holding onto a small lead over Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown.
A Rasmussen poll conducted Wednesday of 500 likely voters finds Warren leading Brown by two points, 49 percent to 47 percent. The last Rasmussen poll, conducted Sept. 24, found the candidates tied at 48 percent. Warren’s lead still falls within the poll’s 4.5 percent margin of error.
A separate poll by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-leaning group, finds Warren leading Brown 50 percent to 44 percent. Warren has grown her lead by four points since a PPP poll done last month, when she led 48 percent to 46 percent.
The poll finds that voters are growing less satisfied with Brown’s job performance. Just 49 percent of those polled approved of Brown’s job’s performance and 42 percent disapproved. (In the Sept. 16 poll, 55 percent approved and 34 percent disapproved.) Warren has been attacking Brown on his voting record, which could be making a difference. However, on ideology, 51 percent of voters still think Brown is “about right,” compared to 33 percent who think he is too conservative and 8 percent who think he is too liberal.
At the same time, voters also have a slightly less positive view of Warren than they did a month ago – illustrating that Brown’s attacks could also be having an effect. The poll finds that 49 percent of respondents viewed Warren favorably and 45 percent viewed her unfavorably, compared to 51 percent favorable and 43 percent unfavorable in September. Ideologically, 49 percent of voters think Warren is “about right,” while 42 percent think she is too liberal and 3 percent think she is too conservative.
The PPP poll found Democratic President Barack Obama leading Republican presidential nominee Romney in Massachusetts by 14 points, 55 percent to 41 percent. That is Obama’s smallest lead so far in the state, and likely reflects his drop in the polls nationally after Romney’s strong debate performance last week.
The poll of 1,051 likely voters was conducted Oct. 9-11 and has a margin of error of 3 percent.
A poll conducted by the Western New England University Polling institute for MassLive.com/The Republican last week found Obama with a 30-point lead in Massachusetts, but that poll was conducted before the presidential debate. That poll also found Warren holding a 5-point lead over Brown.