Our early December survey showed Nussle trailing Democrat Chet Culver by just three points, and leading Michael Blouin and Patty Judge by an equally scrawny margin.

Nussle is now nose-to-nose with Culver, each man receiving support from 40% of likely voters. Nussle now leads Blouin 39% to 34%, Judge 40% to 36%. Thus only Democrat Ed Fallon, trailing by 15 percentage points, is a clear loser to Nussle at this time. Almost a third of likely voters are not yet willing to cast their lot with either candidate in that contest.

Blouin is the only Democratic aspirant who supports an Iowa law banning creation of human embryos to harvest stem cells. Sixty-eight percent (68%) of likely voters say stem cell research is an important election issue for them. Forty-four percent (44%) support the state's ban; 34% would repeal it; 23% are not sure.

Crosstabs are available for Premium Members. See results by Party, Ideology, Gender, attitudes about Stem Cell Research, and more.

If the stem-cell question is as hot-button as some Iowa pundits suggest, Blouin might be better positioned than his Democratic rivals as a general-election candidate. But since Democrats are more likely than Republicans to support the stem-cell research, his stance may not help in the primary.

Currently, Culver wins the most support from fellow Democrats (76%) when the alternative is Nussle. Sixty-eight percent (68%) would vote for Blouin, 66% for Fallon, 68% for Judge.

Visit our Election Polls page to see a summary of our latest state-by state polling. Rasmussen Reports is polling every Senate and Governors' race at least once a month this year.

Crosstabs are available for Premium Members. See results by Party, Ideology, Gender, attitudes about Stem Cell Research, and more.