Republican Sen. Scott Brown and Democrat Elizabeth Warren remain deadlocked in the Massachusetts Senate race, with 46 percent apiece, according to a new survey by Democratic-leaning firm Public Policy Polling.
The survey of 902 registered voters was conducted from June 16-18, and has a 3.3 percent margin of error. In the previous PPP survey from March, Warren led 46 percent to 41 percent.
The poll has good news for Brown — he has a 51 percent approval rating, compared with 38 percent who disapprove of his performance. Forty-nine percent said he was more of an independent voice for Massachusetts, compared with 39 percent who see him as a partisan voice for the national Republican Party.
But Warren could also have a trump card in the presidential race — and the fact that Massachusetts will likely vote for President Obama by an overwhelming margin against Mitt Romney.
PPP’s Tom Jensen writes:
This race is ultimately going to be decided by Obama independents. The undecideds for Senate are planning to vote for Obama over Mitt Romney by a 60/13 margin. 62% of them are independents to 31% who are Democrats and just 7% who are Republicans. On paper it seems like Warren has a lot more room to grow. But those who haven’t made up their minds yet like both candidates. Brown has a 43/19 approval rating with them and Warren’s favorability is 40/15. Unlike in the Presidential race where swing voters are trying to decide who they think is the lesser of two evils, in this contest voters are trying to choose between two candidates who they see pretty favorably. There are already a lot of Obama/Brown voters and it’s quite possible there will be more of them.
The PollTracker Average currently shows a virtual tie in the race, with Brown at 45.1 percent, and Warren with 45 percent.
