Democrat up double digits in race for Castle's seat

Whatever Democrats might have lost by Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) running for Senate, they have at least gained a prime pickup opportunity for his House seat.

A new Public Policy Polling survey shows former Lt. Gov. John Carney (D) polling double-digit leads over a pair of Republicans in the open-seat race to replace Castle. Carney, the runner-up in the 2008 Democratic primary for governor, leads former state Sen. Charlie Copeland (R) 44-32 and announced candidate Fred Cullis 47-24.

The polling is a bit of good news for Democrats, who have in recent weeks seen a number of their incumbents struggling in early polls of the 2010 election.

Part of Carney’s lead in the Democratic-leaning firm’s poll could be chalked up to his name recognition advantage. While slightly less than half (46 percent) of voters can rate his favorability, just 34 percent know Copeland well enough to do that.

Copeland is more of a blank slate, but he did run for lieutenant governor last year, and he has some name ID to prove it. He is not yet a candidate for the seat.

Cullis, a businessman, is known to just 13 percent of voters.

It doesn’t appear that name ID is the only difference, though. Carney’s favorables are 27 percent positive and 18 percent negative, while both Copeland (15-19) and Cullis (3-10) are upside-down right now.

The same sample showed last week that Castle led state Attorney General Beau Biden 45-39 in a prospective Senate matchup.