Polls: Shaheen, Brown deadlocked day before election

Just a day before voters head to the polls, the New Hampshire Senate race is anyone’s guess with the two candidates locked in a dead heat according to two new polls.

Incumbent Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen edges out Republican challenger Scott Brown in a WMUR poll out Sunday while Brown is barely ahead of Shaheen by a one point margin in a New England College poll also out Sunday. Both results amount to a statistical tie with both leads within the polls’ margin of error.

The last word from the WMUR poll of 757 likely voters calls the race at 47% for Shaheen to Brown’s 45% – but 6% of voters say they remain undecided.

The New England College poll of 1,526 likely voters gives Brown the race 49% to 48%, but says just 2% of voters are undecided.

The race has tightened since the summer when Brown consistently trailed his opponent in every major nonpartisan poll.

Brown has effectively closed the gap and his campaign has worked hard since the summer to tarnish Shaheen’s independent brand by tying her to President Barack Obama, who pulls a 37% approval rating among the state’s likely voters, according to the WMUR poll.

Brown has also run several ads playing up the Ebola crisis and the threat from ISIS, saying in a September ad, “President Obama and Senator Shaheen seem confused about the threat, not me.”

While the race has tightened in Brown’s favor, a larger share of voters’ polled by WMUR said they believe Shaheen is most likely to pull through with a win – 55% of respondents said Shaheen would triumph compared to 49% in October.

Shaheen, meanwhile, who has served as both governor and senator in New Hampshire has touted her in-state credentials while branding Brown as an outsider.

Brown served nearly three years representing Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate before moving to New Hampshire after losing his bid for reelection.