Two new polls show a tie between Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren in the Massachusetts Senate race

Elizabeth Warren Two new polls of the Massachusetts Senate race were released over the weekend, and both show a tie game. The first is from the Boston Globe (conducted by the University of New Hampshire) which puts GOP Sen. Scott Brown up 39-37 over Democrat Elizabeth Warren. That's a weirdly high number of undecideds, but that seems to be par for the course for UNH, whose first poll showed Brown with a 37-35 lead. The most important thing to note about this survey, though, is that Barack Obama leads Mitt Romney by just 12 points (46-34), in a state he won by 26 last time. The fact that the Senate race is still so close despite what must be a very unfavorable sample for Warren is a positive sign for her.

A second poll, from Western New England University, has roles reversed and puts Warren up by two points, 45-43. That's a huge jump from a late February/early March poll which saw Brown on top 49-41. WNEU also has a much more plausible Obama-Romney head-to-head, with the president leading by 22 points (56-34). So one poll has a virtual dead despite an implausible presidential sample, and the other shows a ten-point net surge for Warren despite five trying weeks of dealing with questions about her ancestry. It looks like anyone who starting writing Warren off was making a definite mistake.