Scott Brown Leading Elizabeth Warren In Massachusetts Poll

Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) is leading Elizabeth Warren by 5 points, 49 percent to 44 percent, among likely voters, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Democratic leaning Public Policy Polling. It's the first time the firm has found him with a lead in more than a year.

Brown benefited from a double-digit lead among independents -- 58 percent to Warren's 32 percent -- as well as by attracting 20 percent of Democratic voters.

Fifty-three percent of likely Massachusetts voters said they wanted Democrats to keep control of the Senate, compared to 36 percent who wanted to see Republicans retake the chamber.

But Brown, who called for Todd Akin to drop out of the Missouri Senate Race, and was cautious in his praise for Paul Ryan, has been successful in putting some distance between himself and the national Republican party. While 56 percent of Massachusetts voters said the GOP was too conservative, only 30 percent said Brown was, according to the poll.

“Scott Brown’s been able to hold up his image as a moderate and that has him in a good position right now,” Dean Debnam, Public Policy Polling's president, said in a statement. “Democrats will have to convince voters who like him to vote against him anyway to keep the Senate from going Republican.”

The automated phone poll was conducted between Aug. 16 and 19, and surveyed 1,115 likely voters. It had a 2.9 percent margin of error.