Poll: High-profile Virginia Senate race starts in a tie between Kaine, Allen

Former Sen. George Allen (R) and former DNC Chairman Tim Kaine start their high-profile race for Virginia’s Senate seat in a tie, according to a new poll.

Both Kaine and Allen would take 46 percent of the vote if the election between the two political heavyweights were held today, according to a Washington Post poll published Sunday.

{mosads}The poll suggests what many political observers have suggested for some time: that the race to succeed the retiring Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) will be one of the most competitive and closely-watched races of the 2012 cycle.

Both Kaine and Allen start the race with net-positive favorable ratings with Virginia voters. According to the poll, 57 percent of Virginia voters have a favorable impression of Kaine, while 52 percent have a favorable opinion of Allen.

Both men had served as governor of Virginia before moving onto the subsequent positions for which they’re especially well-known. Allen served a term in the Senate before losing in the 2006 Democratic wave, a loss hastened by his use of a racial epithet against a Webb tracker on the campaign trail. Kaine served most recently as chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), a job which Republicans have sought to use against Kaine, describing him as President Obama’s top “cheerleader.”

The Post poll offered other clues about the breakdown of the race. Allen leads Kaine by 10 percent among independents, the poll said, and Kaine has advantages in northern Virginia and in the Richmond area.

The poll, conducted April 28-May 4, has a 3.5 percent margin of error.