Many Iowans still unfamiliar with Iowa U.S. Senate candidates

UPDATE: In the race to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin in 2014, U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley is viewed more favorably than any of the Republicans running, but a majority of Iowans don't know enough about him to form an opinion.

“It's a year-and-a-half until the election, so it happens,” according to Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, which released its poll Monday.

Quinnipiac found Braley's situation virtually unchanged from late May, when 57 percent of those surveyed said they didn't know enough about the Waterloo attorney to form an opinion. Although Braley has been elected four times, six in 10 people don't know enough about him to rate him, Brown said. More than half of Democrats say they don't know enough about Braley to rate him

On the plus side, Braley has a 27 to 13 percent favorability rating.

He's better off than the field of Republicans who want Harkin's job, Brown noted. Nine in 10 Iowa voters don't know enough about them to rate them. “Don't know enough” scores for former U.S. Attorney Matt Whitaker, Sen. Joni Ernst, businessman Mark Jacobs, former aide to Sen. Chuck Grassley David Young or college professor and radio host Sam Clovis range from 88 percent to 94 percent.

Republicans' favorability and unfavorable ratings were in the single digits suggesting they still have an opportunity to win voters' support. The Republicans – and Braley -- can do that with money and television commercials, Brown said. It will be harder for Republicans because they will have to spend money on the primary race. Braley has no challenger for the Democratic nomination.

“The fact he is a little better known is an advantage and he can spend his time and money boosting his image for the general election,” Brown said.

Quinnipiac polled 1,256 registered voters July 15-17. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percent. Live interviewers call land lines and cell phones.

Quinnipiac's results are, for the most part, consistent with an Iowa Poll that found 29 percent of Iowa voters had a “very” or “mostly” favorable view of Braley, while 57 percent did not know enough about him to form an opinion. The percentage of voters who didn't know enough about Whitaker, Young and Ernst ranged from 74 percent to 88 percent.