Warren Leads Brown In 2 New Polls
BOSTON (CBS) - The plot is thickening in the U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts.
Two new polls independent of each other bring good news to Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren.
The first poll, out of Western New England College, showed her with a six-point lead over Sen. Scott Brown. That's outside the margin of error and the first time we've seen that in this race.
So what's changed in this tight race?
WBZ-TV political analyst Jon Keller said, looking at the internal numbers, Democrats who had said they would support Brown are now being "peeled away" to support Warren.
"I suspect it's more a result of more aggressive field work by the Democratic Party and the Warren campaign, phone banking, reaching out to Democrats and saying 'Hey there's some big differences here, don't be 'fooled' by Brown's outreach to Democrats that you've seen in his ads," Keller said.
He also warned not to put too much stock in poll numbers at this point.
The second survey, from an automated telephone poll by the firm Public Policy Polling, was more consistent with recent polls, showing Warren with a two-point edge, 48-to-46 percent, over Brown.
Both candidates were out in the Boston area Monday - Brown at an auto body shop in Mattapan and Warren at a garden store in Dorchester.
"You're going to see polls up and down, as I said, right from the beginning, and this is going to be a close race. But it's going to be a race about choices and (those) choices are someone who's been doing what I've been doing, which is working together to solve problems," Brown said.
"I'm out there every single day, working for every single vote and that would be true regardless of where I am in the polls," Warren told reporters.
You can watch the first Brown-Warren debate Thursday at 7 p.m. live on WBZ-TV and CBS Boston.com. You can also listen to it live on WBZ NewsRadio 1030.
