Poll: Warren takes early lead over Brown

It's the perfect start that Elizabeth Warren and her supporters wanted.

A new poll by the Democrat-affiliated Public Policy Polling group shows the Harvard professor taking an early lead on Sen. Scott Brown in their Massachusetts Senate race for 2012. Warren has erased a 15 point deficit from last June, leading the incumbent now by a narrow 46-44 margin.

Warren's name recognition has increased from 38 to 62 percent over the last three months the group said, with her 21 percent favorability rating also improving to 40 percent.

There are some positives in the poll for Brown however, who won a special election for the late Ted Kennedy's seat against Martha Coakley in 2010 to give Republicans a shock national victory.

Forty-seven percent of voters feel Brown is an "independent voice for Massachusetts" than the 41 percent who say he's focused on being a partisan voice for Massachusetts.

Voters also feel that Brown isn't "too conservative," with 45 percent saying that he is "about right" ideologically.