LANSING – The two most talked about potential Democratic challengers to Governor Rick Snyder in 2014, former U.S. Reps. Mark Schauer and Bart Stupak, both manage statistical ties when matched against Snyder in a new poll released Monday.

Schauer took 39 percent to 38 percent for Snyder in the survey from Lansing-based EPIC/MRA while Snyder had 39 percent to 38 percent for Stupak.

The poll comes as several Democrats now say the interest of Schauer in running, after sounding a bit hesitant to run during the winter, has grown substantially. Three Democrats, speaking on condition they not be named, said while Schauer is not yet a lock to run, the chances are high that he will.

Stupak also has expressed interest, but his opposition to abortion is at odds with the bulk of the Democratic electorate and would likely guarantee a contested primary that top Democrats want to avoid.

The two potential Democratic candidates polled well despite being virtually unknown. Some 79 percent of those surveyed did not recognize Stupak’s name, refused to answer or were undecided on their impression of him. Eleven percent had a favorable view while 10 percent had an unfavorable opinion.

For Schauer, 88 percent of those surveyed did not recognize Stupak’s name, refused to answer or were undecided on their impression of him. Seven percent said they had a favorable view compared to 5 percent unfavorable.

“When 56 percent don’t recognize Stupak and 75 percent don’t recognize Schauer, but they are both running even with the incumbent governor, that shows that Snyder could be very vulnerable in the race next year,” EPIC/MRA President Bernie Porn said in an email. “However, this is still early and a lot can change. Snyder had high negatives after his budget cuts, but he improved until the December poll to favorable numbers that were almost as high as when he first took office, and his job rating was positive by a majority for the first time. Then there was right-to-work, proposals for registration fee and gas tax increases, and now a lot of voters are discovering that they are paying higher taxes while corporations are paying a couple of billion less.”

Snyder’s numbers remain a bit sluggish, as they have since he signed the right-to-work laws in December amid a flurry of controversial legislation in the lame-duck session. While 42 percent of those polled said they had a favorable impression of Snyder, 46 percent said they had an unfavorable impression. That is identical to EPIC/MRA’s last poll in February.

As is usually the case with any elected official, Snyder’s job rating was worse with 38 percent giving him a positive rating compared to 58 percent negative. That’s a slight improvement from the 36-61 positive-negative rating the governor received in February’s EPIC/MRA poll.

The hypothetical race appears to reflect partisan polarization with voters identifying themselves with either major political party lining up behind their party’s candidate. In a Schauer-Snyder contest, Schauer has 74 percent of Democrats while Snyder has 76 percent of Republicans. Independents are essentially split, 25 percent to Schauer and 26 percent to Snyder with 49 percent undecided.

Stupak’s numbers with Democrats are a little softer with 69 percent saying they would support him compared to 11 percent who would vote for Snyder.

Voters still remain bullish on the Michigan economy, too. Fifty-six percent saying it is starting to improve, 23 percent said it is not yet getting better and 19 percent said it will get worse. Those numbers have essentially held since January 2012.

Schauer could not immediately be reached, but he has raised his profile in recent weeks. He was the keynote speaker at the Democratic Party’s Youth Reception prior to Saturday’s Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner in Detroit. He appeared at a news conference with Ingham County Register of Deeds Curtis Hertel Jr., a state Senate candidate, calling for the Legislature to pass Medicaid expansion; and appeared at the Michigan Federation of College Democrats’ annual conference.

In another finding from the poll, President Barack Obama’s numbers have dipped slightly. Fifty-two percent said they had a favorable opinion of the president compared to 44 percent unfavorable. That is down from a 55-42 split in February.

Meanwhile, 44 percent of those surveyed gave Obama a positive jobs rating while 54 percent assigned him a negative one. In February, that split was 49-50.

EPIC/MRA, which paid for the poll, conducted the survey among 600 active voters between April 13 and April 16 via live telephone interviews. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

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