Del.’s Carney leads actual and hypothetical candidates in House race

John Carney leads real and possible opponents in the latest poll of the race for U.S. House.

Former Delaware Lt. Governor John Carney holds a lead in the latest poll in of the U.S. House race.

Public Policy Polling’s (PPP) latest survey of 571 Delawareans shows the Democratic candidate Carney holding a very comfortable lead over announced Republican candidate Fred Cullis.  Carney leads Cullis, who is running his first campaign, 47% to 24%.  The poll has a margin of error of +/- 4.1%.

Cullis, though, likely will not be the only member of the GOP to challenge Carney for the House seat that’s been held by Mike Castle since 1992.  One of those others who may run for Castle’s seat is former state Senator Charlie Copeland (R).  Copeland made an unsuccessful run for Lt. Governor last fall.  The PPP survey asked voters how they would vote in they hypothetical Carney/Copeland match-up.  Carney again took the lead, 44% to 32%.

The poll comes with nearly a year before the election, and before really any campaign effort has been made.  Both actual candidates, along with hypothetical candidate Copeland, have high unknown numbers in the poll.  54% of those polled had no opinion of Carney, even though he was Delaware’s Lt. Governor for eight years.  Copeland’s ‘no opinion’ numbers were higher at 66%, while the newcomer Cullis had the highest ‘no opinion’ numbers of all three candidates at 87%.

Last week, Public Policy Polling released the results of its survey in the U.S. Senate race.  You can find that story by clicking here.