Ohio’s Republican State Treasurer Josh Mandel has surged in his bid to unseat Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown after initial problems with name recognition, according to a recent Quinnipiac poll.
Brown leads Mandel 46 percent to 40 percent.
The last time Quinnipiac released a poll on the race, on March 29, Brown led Mandel 46 percent to 36 percent. And a February Quinnipiac poll showed Brown up by 13 points, 48 percent to 35 percent.
Brown leads Mandel narrowly among independent voters, 42 percent to 38 percent. In the previous Quinnipiac poll, Brown held a heftier lead of 46 percent to 28 percent among independents.
Mandel’s increasing popularity with independents has also correlated with a 5-point lead among men, while Brown has a wide edge among women. Brown, a Democrat, has been dealing with revelations that he battered his wife and children during a turbulent divorce in the 1980s.