Poll: Ohio Senate Race Wide Open

On Monday, Public Policy Polling released the first poll of the 2010 Ohio Senate race. The poll pits the likely Republican nominee, Rob Portman, against three potential Democratic opponents in a hypothetical match-up: Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher, Rep. Tim Ryan and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. Here are the numbers:

Portman--41%
Fisher--39%

Portman--40%
Ryan--34%

Portman--42%
Brunner--34%

None of these candidates are universally known statewide, so all of them potentially have the opportunity to improve their numbers. But their favorability ratings give us a good idea of how Ohio voters perceive them thus far.

Portman has a favorable rating of 28% with 23% having an unfavorable opinion of him, while Fisher's numbers are 40-32, Ryan's are 26-27, and Brunner's are 34-36.

Based on these numbers, Portman is the least known of the the four potential candidates yet he leads all three of the Democrats--however, all of his leads were narrow and he barely reaches to 40% mark in each of the match-ups.

Portman has already officially announced his candidacy, but we are still waiting on Fisher, Ryan, Brunner, and others such as Reps. Zack Space and Betty Sutton to announce whether or not they are going to be running for this seat in 2010.

This poll confirms the fact that this race will be highly competitive no matter who the Democratic nominee is, and I will be keeping a close eye on it in the months to come.