Beau Biden leads Mike Castle in hypothetical matchup

Beau Biden takes the lead over Mike Castle in a hypothetical poll of their possible race for Vice President Biden’s former Senate seat.

The 2010 special election to permanently fill the seat vacated by Vice President Biden is still almost a year away and no Democrat has announced plans to run for the seat, but that hasn’t stopped the Susquehanna Polling and Research firm of Harrisburg, Pa.  from taking a poll of 850 Delawareans on how they plan to vote.

The hypothetical match-up pits announced candidate Congressman Mike Castle (R) against Delaware’s Attorney General Beau Biden (D), who is still considering whether or not to run for the seat.  According to the poll, Biden gets 45% of the vote, Castle gets 40%, 8 % were undecided, and 6% picked “other”.  The poll did not ask voters if they would vote for Christine O’Donnell (R), who lost the ’08 Senate race to Biden.  The poll has a margin of error of 3.36%.

Biden’s numbers are even better among New Castle County voters.  In Delaware’s most populous county, Biden led Castle 50% to 36%.  Castle topped Biden in both Kent (Castle 44%, Biden 42%) and Sussex (Castle 49%, Biden 35%).

49% of those polled were Democrats, while 28% were Republicans.  23% were registered independent or members of another party.