Warren, Brown tied in Dem poll

Democrat Elizabeth Warren is locked in a dead heat with Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), according to a poll released Tuesday and commissioned by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC).

Warren and Brown each took 46 percent in the poll by Democratic firm Harstad Strategic Research.

Multiple polls over the past few months have suggested the race is tied. But Republicans have been hoping that a major flap over Warren's claim to Native American heritage would nudge the numbers in Brown's direction.

The DSCC poll was in the field May 8-10, at the same time that the controversy over Warren's ancestry was garnering major local and national headlines.

Voters were split when asked whether developments in recent weeks made them more or less likely to vote for Warren, which Democrats are sure to use to argue the controversy has been a media creation with little effect on the race. But voters weren't asked about the controversy specifically. Instead, pollsters asked generally about "things you've seen or heard about Elizabeth Warren in the past few weeks."

An independent poll of the Senate race by Suffolk University is scheduled to be released on Wednesday.

The DSCC poll of 502 likely voters was conducted using live telephone interviews and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

The Hill rates this race a toss-up.

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