Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, who's running for re-election as an independent, is in a statistical tie with Democratic primary winner Ned Lamont, according to a poll taken by the American Research Group Inc. in the past five days.

The telephone survey of 790 likely voters in Connecticut found that 44 percent would vote for Lieberman if the election were held today compared with 42 percent for Lamont. The Republican challenger Alan Schlesinger drew 3 percent of the vote. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

The Aug. 17-21 poll included interviews after Lieberman defended his support for the Iraq war on CBS's ``Face the Nation'' Sunday talk show. An Aug. 10-14 Quinnipiac University poll had put Lieberman ahead of Lamont by 12 points.

``It looks better for Lamont as the turnout grows because there is an anti-incumbent feeling,'' said Dick Bennett, president of the Manchester, New Hampshire-based American Research Group. ``If this were a lower-interest race, I would say Lieberman would have it.''

The independent American Research Group poll found that Lieberman had an edge of 10 points over Lamont among unaffiliated voters and drew 57 percent of the registered Republicans, compared with 18 percent for Lamont and 11 percent for Schlesinger. Democrats backed Lamont 65 percent to 30 percent.

Among the 600 participants who said they always vote, Lieberman drew 47 percent support to Lamont's 43 percent. That was within the 4-point margin of error for that subgroup.

The earlier Quinnipiac poll included 1,319 likely voters in Connecticut and had a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points. Bennett said the two polling groups may use different criteria for identifying voters most likely to go to the polls.

Lamont won the state's Democratic Senate primary Aug. 8 with 52 percent of the vote to Lieberman's 48 percent. Within hours, Lieberman filed to run as an independent in the general election.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kristin Jensen in Washington at kjensen@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 22, 2006 11:09 EDT