LANSING – Governor Rick Snyder and Democrat Mark Schauer remain in a virtual tie as the general election season has now begun, and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Gary Peters holds a slight lead over Republican candidate Terri Land according to polls released Wednesday.

Two polls were released on the U.S. Senate race, one from Marketing Resource Group, the other from Harper, both Republican firms.

MRG also released a poll on the gubernatorial race.

The gubernatorial race showed Snyder being supported by about 44.6 percent of the persons asked, with Schauer supported by slightly more than 44.3 percent of those polled.

In March, MRG showed Snyder with a nearly 9 percentage point lead, at 47 percent to Schauer’s 39 percent.

“As Mark Schauer has become better known, he has consistently gained support among his Democratic base,” said Tom Shields, president of MRG, in a statement. “At this time the race for governor in Michigan has to be considered a toss-up.”

The survey was done of 600 likely voters from July 26 and July 30 with an error rate of 4 percentage points.

In the same poll, respondents were asked about the U.S. Senate race and the results showed Peters leading Land 46.9 percent to 40 percent.

When last surveyed in March, Land held a statistically insignificant lead of 40 percent to 38 percent.

“It appears that Land’s campaign has hit a wall over the past four months while Peters has picked up nine percent of the previously undecided voters,” Shields said. “This is coming down to a battle for the ticket-splitting, independent voters and as of now, Peters is leading among ticket-splitters by 15 percent.”

But an automated poll on the Senate race from Harper Polling, done of 549 likely voters from Monday and Tuesday showed Peters with a much smaller lead, 45 percent to 44 percent.

The margin of error in the poll is 4.18 percentage points. Land campaign officials trumpeted that survey because it is more recent and, they contended, more reflective of her recent wave of advertising.

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