Poll: Toomey starts out Senate race with small lead

by Cameron Joseph - 01/20/15 5:59 PM ET

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) begins his reelection race with a narrow lead over former Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), the man he defeated in 2010, according to a new poll.

{mosads}Toomey leads Sestak by 40 percent to 36 percent in the automated poll from Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, the first public survey of the year.

Those numbers indicate that the race is wide open and that both candidates start out with low name identification in the large state.

Toomey’s approval rating is 28 percent with 35 disapproving, with a solid 37 percent of potential voters having no opinion of him either way.

Sestak is even less well-known, with roughly 20 percent in the poll approving and disapproving and a whopping 60 percent not knowing him well enough to voice an opinion.

Toomey is slightly above 40 percent against five other potential Democratic candidates, with leads against most of them, though it’s unlikely any of them will run.

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Sestak has moved hard towards a rematch, though it’s unclear whether or not he’ll face a primary. Former Rep. Chris Carney (D-Pa.) is reportedly interested in a primary as well, but wasn’t one of the candidates PPP tested.

The automated poll of 1,042 Pennslyania registered voters was conducted via telephone and internet from Jan. 15-16 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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