A recent internal survey showed state Sen. Kay Hagan (D) gaining on Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R) in the Tar Heel State Senate race.

According to a campaign memo, Dole led Hagan in a ballot test, 48 to 44 percent. The Anzalone-Liszt Research survey, taken May 14-21, interviewed 800 likely general election voters. The survey had a 3.5-point margin of error.

“This poll confirms what we have been hearing all across the state — North Carolina needs new leadership in Washington, and while Elizabeth Dole is a nice person, she’s not an effective leader,” Hagan spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan said. “Elizabeth Dole is vulnerable because on issue after issue, she has sided with lobbyists and their special interests, failed to achieve any real legislative success, and played partisan politics to the detriment of North Carolinians.”

An automated poll taken May 8 and 9 — just after Hagan became the Democratic nominee — appears to back up the Hagan campaign’s recent claims that the once-obscure candidate is surging.

In the Public Policy Polling survey, Dole led Hagan 48 percent to 43 percent. The poll of 616 likely general election voters had a 4-point margin of error.

When the automated polling firm tested a Dole-Hagan matchup in February, Dole had a 17-point lead.

— Matthew Murray