Poll: O'Donnell Helped By Castle Write-In

Support for Democrat Chris Coons drops below 50 percent if Castle enters race as write-in.

A new poll out Monday shows that if Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) were to wage a write-in bid in Delaware's Senate race this November, it could make the contest more winnable for Tea Party-backed Christine O'Donnell (R).

The Rasmussen poll found New Castle County Executive Chris Coons (D) still leading O'Donnell by nine percentage points in a hypothetical three-way race, but the Democrat's support came in under 50 percent.

The numbers have Coons ahead with 49 percent to O'Donnell's 40 percent. Castle gets just 5 percent of the vote as a write-in option, but most of that support appears to come away from the Democrat rather than O'Donnell.

The numbers should be taken with a grain of salt given the difficulty in polling a write-in contest. Rasmussen said the automated survey asked respondents their choice in a two-way race between Coons and O'Donnell with no mention of Castle. Only when the response options were listed were respondents given the choice of voting for Castle.  More