Attorney General Martha Coakley holds a 15-point lead among likely Democratic Primary voters in Massachusetts in the race to fill the U.S. Senate seat of the late Edward M. Kennedy.

A new Rasmussen Reports survey in the state shows Coakley with the support of 36% of likely primary voters, followed by Congressman Michael Capuano who earns 21%.

Alan Khazei, the head of a Boston-based national community service program, and Stephen Pagliuca, a businessman and co-owner of the Boston Celtics, each pick up 14% of the primary vote. Five percent (5%) prefer some other candidate, and 10% are undecided.

Democrats and Republicans will pick their respective candidates for the January 19 special Senate election in party primaries on December 8. Paul Kirk, a former Democratic National Committee chairman, is holding the seat on an interim basis until the special election. The winner of the special election will serve until the end of Kennedy’s term in January 2013.

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Coakley, who was elected attorney general in 2006, has been the front-runner from the start. In early September, she earned 38% of the vote, while Capuano only received seven percent (7%) support. But they were the only two out of five candidates polled at that time who ultimately declared for the race.

While Coakley appears to have gained no ground over the past two-and-a-half months, she may be in a good enough position in a four-person race to come out the clear winner.

Sixty-one percent (61%) of likely primary voters have a favorable opinion of Coakley, with 31% very favorable. Thirty percent (30%) view her unfavorably, including 14% who see her very unfavorably. Just eight percent (8%) have no opinion of Coakley.

Capuano, a member of the House since 1999, is seen favorably by 62%, with 22% very favorable, and unfavorably by 26%, including 11% very unfavorable. Twelve percent (12%) don’t know enough about him to even venture a soft opinion.

For Khazei, favorables total 47% (22% very favorable) and unfavorables are 31% (11% very unfavorable). But more than one-out-of-five primary voters (22%) don’t know him well enough to have an opinion one way or the other.

Forty-nine percent (49%) have a favorable regard for Pagliuca, with 13% very favorable. Thirty-seven percent (37%) see him unfavorably, including 15% very unfavorable. But 14% are not sure what they think of this candidate.

Sixty-one percent (61%) of Americans say President John F. Kennedy had the most positive and lasting impact on the nation of all of the political Kennedy brothers. Twenty percent (20%) said the same of Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy, who died of cancer on August 25 after serving for nearly 47 years in the U.S. Senate.

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