Democratic U.S. Sen. Al Franken has single digit leads over some of his Republican opponents, a new KSTP/Survey USA poll found.

Franken, who won his first election by just a few hundred votes, had 8 percentage point leads over two of his challengers and a larger leads over four others.

Here are the numbers from the pollster:

  • "Franken 50%, Republican Mike McFadden 40%.
  • Franken 50%, Republican Harold Shudlick 36%.
  • Franken 50%, Republican Monti Moreno 36%.
  • Franken 49%, Republican Julianne Ortman 41%
  • Franken 49%, Republican Chris Dahlberg 41%.
  • Franken 49%, Republican Jim Abeler 37%."

The same poll found that Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton with larger leads over his Republican opponents. According to the poll, Dayton had between 17 and 21 percentage point leads over the candidates seeking to oust him.

Methodology from the pollster:

"SurveyUSA interviewed 600 state of MN adults 02/25/14 through 02/27/14. Of the adults, 545 were registered to vote, and were asked about the election pairings. This research was conducted using blended sample, mixed mode. Respondents reachable on a home telephone (69% of registered voters) were interviewed on their home telephone in the recorded voice of a professional announcer. Respondents not reachable on a home telephone (31% of registered voters) were shown a questionnaire on their smartphone, tablet or other electronic device."

A separate Washington Post/ABC poll found that in states with U.S. Senate races this year, Republicans have an edge over Democrats.

Photo: A new generation voting machine being demonstrated