Dem poll: Rep. Critz has 6-point lead

Rep. Mark Critz (D-Pa.) has a 6-point lead over Republican Keith Rothfus, according to a new poll from the House Majority PAC, a Democratic super-PAC, and the Service Employees International Union.

Critz leads Rothfus by 44 percent to 38. Partisan polls should always be taken with a grain of salt, and while Critz holds an edge in the poll, 44 percent is not where most incumbents want to be. But Critz is running in a newly-drawn district that is largely new territory for him and would have given President Obama just 45 percent in 2008, making it one of the tougher seats to for a Democrat to hold this cycle.

The congressman's own campaign recently released a mid-June poll showing him with a more comfortable 10-point lead over Rothfus.

While Critz outraised Rothfus in the last fundraising quarter, he started out the general election with almost no money after spending heavily to defeat Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.) in a late-April primary. Rothfus has $650,000 in the bank to Critz's $430,000.

The Majorty PAC poll of 400 likely voters was conducted by the Benenson Strategy Group from July 9-11 and has a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points.

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