A Rasmussen poll yesterday had Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse with an 8 percentage point lead over Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee in the general election. But a poll released today by Brown University has the candidates in a dead heat.

If the election were held today, according to the Brown poll, Whitehouse would receive 40 percent of the vote, Chafee 39 percent. The poll was based on a statewide sample of 578 likely voters and had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

"The Rasmussen survey in Rhode Island consistently has had a pro-Democratic bias, compared to the other public surveys," says Darrell West, who conducted the Brown poll. "He uses automated phone calls, not human interviewers, and I think this creates sampling problems."

One fifth of voters in the Brown poll declared themselves undecided, and in a state with a large number of independents, the fight for the middle ground is sure to only grow stronger as Election Day approaches.

–Silla Brush