Despite the media furor over Elizabeth Warren's Native American heritage, or lack thereof, voters in Massachusetts say they just don't care that much, according to a new poll.
The Democratic Senate candidate has faced criticism from her Republican opponent, Sen. Scott Brown, in recent weeks over whether or not she used her ancestry to further her academic and professional career. Questions also arose over whether or not Warren was indeed part Cherokee at all, as she had been told by family members growing up.
[Read: Brown, Warren spar in Senate race.]
But the two remain deadlocked in the race, according to a Suffolk University-7 News Massachusetts poll released late Wednesday. Brown garnered 48 percent compared to Warren's 47 percent, well within the poll's 4 percent margin of error.
While 72 percent of respondents said they were aware of the Warren controversy, 69 percent said it was not a significant story versus 27 percent who said it was.
Warren has launched her own attack on Brown, attempting to paint him as a Wall Street sympathizer and calling on him to return the $50,000 in campaign cash he received from employees at JP Morgan Chase. The bank recently became embroiled in a political controversy over regulatory reform because of $2 billion in losses it announced due to risky trading practices.
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The poll shows that attack doesn't hold water with voters either â€" 55 percent of voters said a vote for Brown was not a vote for Wall Street compared to 33 percent who said it was. They were evenly split on whether or not he should return the campaign funds.
The Bay State race is expected to be one of the closest, most expensive Senate campaigns in the country as Republicans and Democrats both vie for control of the upper chamber. Warren's standing has improved since a similar poll was taken in February, which showed Brown ahead 49 percent to 40 percent.
"In both the February and May polls, Brown has fallen short of the coveted 50 percent mark for an incumbent, while Elizabeth Warren has converted some undecided voters since February," said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, in a release accompanying the results.
[See photos of the GOP's top Senate targets.]
"This leaves both campaigns no choice but to spend tens of millions of dollars in an all-out war to woo the five percent of voters who will decide this election," he said.
The poll also showed both Brown and Warren increasing their favorability among voters. Brown remains more popular than Warren, however.
And despite having been governor of Massachusetts, the poll shows presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney trailing President Obama by 25 points among likely voters.
Rebekah Metzler is a political writer for U.S. News World Report. You can contact her at rmetzler@usnews.com or follow her on Twitter.
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