Poll Tracker

Sen. Blanche Lincoln's (D-Ark.) approval ratings have dropped by more than 10 points since October, according to a new poll conducted for the Arkansas-based Talk Business which was in the field Jan. 13 to 15.

While a Talk Business poll found Lincoln's job approval rating evenly split at 45 just three months ago, the latest survey showed 38 percent of voters approve of the job the Senator is doing and 56 percent disapprove. Just 24 percent of Independent voters polled this week approve of the job Lincoln is doing while 69 percent dissapprove.

Those declining numbers will only encourage Senate Republicans who view Lincoln's seat as one of their top two take-over possibilities this November. Nine Republicans are vying for the opportunity to challenge Lincoln in the general election but the National Republican Senatorial Committee has been targeting the moderate Lincoln since the beginning of the cycle.

Lincoln's latest approval numbers come even as Democratic Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe saw his job approval rating rise three points to 82 percent from October to January.

The telephone survey was conducted by the Republican firm Wilson Reseach Strategies for Talk Business. The poll of 600 likely voters had a 4 point margin of error.

A DailyKos/Research 2000 poll taken Jan. 13 found no clear favorite in the Colorado Senate race, using any hypothetical matchup between either of the two Democratic candidates and the three major Republican candidates.

In the likeliest matchup, Sen. Michael Bennet (D) had 40 percent and ex-Lt. Gov. Jane Norton (R) had 39 percent. The results were essentially the same when Bennet was paired with county prosecutor Ken Buck (R) and former state Sen. Tom Wiens (R).

All three Republicans are also running essentially even with Andrew Romanoff (D), a former Colorado House Speaker who is challenging Bennet in the primary election.

State Sen. Scott Brown (R) tops 50 percent of the vote in the Massachusetts Senate special election, according to a survey of likely voters conducted over the weekend by Public Policy Polling.

Brown, who just weeks ago was considered a considerable long-shot for the seat, leads Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) 51 to 46 percent, with 4 percent undecided. The margin of error is 2.8 percent.

And though Brown's unfavorable rating has grown, he is still viewed favorably by far more likely voters -- 56 percent have a favorable view of him compared to 37 percent with an unfavorable view.

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) has taken a major hit in public opinion as a direct result of his support for health care reform legislation, an Omaha World-Herald poll found.

According to the statewide survey of 500 registered Nebraska voters conducted Jan. 8-12, Nelson's job approval rating has sunk to 42 percent, with 48 percent disapproving. That stood in stark contrast to Sen. Mike Johanns' (R-Neb.) 63 percent approval rating; Johanns has consistently opposed the Democrats' health care agenda.

Overall, 60 percent of Nebraskans oppose the health care reform bills that passed the House and Senate late last year. The poll found that voters' attitudes regarding Nelson's support for the Senate bill broke along party lines, with three-quarters of Republicans opposing his vote, while only 22 percent of Democrats felt similarly.

The poll was conducted by Omaha-based Wiese Research Associates and has an error margin of 4.4 points. The survey data was obtained via telephone interviews.

Ex-Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) has a big early lead in his 2010 rematch with Rep. Steve Driehaus (D), according to a SurveyUSA poll conducted Jan. 12-14 for Firedoglake.

The poll of 600 likely voters gave Chabot, who represented the Cincinnati-area 1st district for 14 years, a 56 percent to 39 percent lead over Driehaus, who unseated Chabot in the 2008 election by a margin of five percentage points.

Self-described political independents sided overwhelmingly with Chabot, 69 percent to 27 percent, and Chabot did better among Republican voters (86 percent) than Driehaus did among Democratic voters (79 percent).

Sen. Barbara Boxer's (D-Calif.) lead in a general election contest is shrinking, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll of likely California voters conducted Jan. 14.

Boxer tops former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina (R) just 46 to 43 percent. And she leads to other prospective GOP challengers by just a bit more -- 46 to 42 percent over former Rep. Tom Campbell, who just switched from the governor's to Senate race this week; and 46 to 40 percent over state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore.

In a November, Boxer led Fiorina 46 to 37 percent and DeVore 49 to 39 percent.

"The fact that Boxer's support is frozen at 46% against all GOP challengers suggest that the race for now is about her rather than those running against her," Rasmussen wrote in its polling analysis.

New York's appointed senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, still has some work to do to win over her constituents, according to a Marist Poll conducted Jan. 13 and 14.

Just 24 percent of registered New York voters surveyed rated Gillibrand's job performance as good or excellent, while 51 percent rated it fair or poor. Another 33 percent just weren't sure.

Those approval ratings are nearly identical to the 25 percent rating Marist found in November for the Democrat appointed to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

But the poll wasn't all gloomy for the unelected incumbent.

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) has fallen further behind ex-Lt. Gov. Jane Norton (R) and even trails two lesser-known Republicans in his campaign for a full term, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted Jan. 13.

According to the survey of 500 likely voters, Norton led Bennet by 49 percent to 37 percent. Norton, who is the preferred candidate of many Republican senators, is the leading candidate in a GOP primary that also includes former state Sen. Tom Wiens and county prosecutor Ken Buck, who led Bennet by smaller margins.

The share of poll respondents who said they view Bennet favorably (42 percent) only slightly exceeds the percentage of respondents who said they view him unfavorably (40 percent).

Arkansas Rep. Vic Snyder, a top Republican target in 2010, lags behind his GOP challenger in a Survey USA poll that was in the field Jan. 11 to 13.

Snyder, a Democrat who represents the Little Rock area, trailed Republican Tim Griffin 39 to 56 according to a phone survey commissioned by the liberal blog Firedoglake.

Those numbers combined with the ongoing fundraising disparity in the race certainly won't quell speculation over whether the incumbent might retire rather than run again..

State Sen. Scott Brown (R) leads state Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) by four percentage points among likely voters in the Massachusetts Senate race according to a new poll by Suffolk University conducted Jan. 11 to 13.

Brown, a huge underdog at the start of the special election, has surged into the lead, 50 to 46 percent over Coakley, with independent candidate Joe Kennedy (no relation to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, who held the seat for decades) at 3 percent and 1 percent undecided. The margin of error is 4.4 percent.

Coakley's unfavorable rating has jumped considerably in the past two months. The latest Suffolk poll found that 41 percent of likely voters now have an unfavorable opinion of her, compared to 21 percent in mid-November. Forty-nine percent now view Coakley favorably.