Former Sen. Jim Talent has a stronger image than either Sen. Claire McCaskill or former Missouri Treasurer Sarah Steelman among the three leading candidates in the 2012 Senate race in Missouri, a survey finds.

Former Sen. Jim Talent

Among likely voters in Missouri, 49 percent view Talent favorably, according to the research by Wilson Research Strategies, which conducted the survey for Axiom Strategies, a Republican political consulting firm in Kansas City.

Talent, a Republican who narrowly lost in 2006 to McCaskill, a Democrat, has not said whether he plans to campaign again for the Senate seat in 2012.

Steelman, a Republican who announced her candidacy earlier this month, received a 22 percent favorability rating compared to 48 percent for McCaskill.

Talent leads McCaskill by double digits, according to WRS.

A match-up with Steelman, however, is a dead-heat, WRS finds. McCaskill’s support, meanwhile, is only in the low 40′s against either opponent.

“McCaskill is going to have a tough reelection bid given her weak favorable-to-unfavorable image ratio… and her dismal performance on head-to-head ballots,” WRS says. ”Talent would do better against McCaskill than would Steelman if the election were held today, but the difference is driven by different levels of name ID and may not be predictive of how well either would perform by the end of a campaign.”

WRS surveyed 500 likely voters from Dec. 1 to Dec. 2. The margin of error is plus-or-minus 4.4 percent.

As Missouri Watchdog reported earlier this month, another poll shows Talent is preferred by 53 percent of voters when he is pitted against Steelman. The survey by Public Policy Polling, which conducts polls mostly for Democrats, was conducted Nov. 29 to Dec. 1 and its margin of error is plus-or-minus 4.9 percent.

According to yet another survey by PPP, McCaskill trails Talent by 2 percent. PPP has ranked McCaskill in the top three of the “least popular and conceivably most vulnerable” senators up for reelection across the country.

By Brian R. Hook, brhook@missouriwatchdog.org, (314) 482-7944

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