With three months to go before Kentucky’s high-profile Democratic Senate primary, Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo released an internal campaign poll Wednesday that shows him with an 18-point lead over state Attorney General Jack Conway.

The poll, taken Feb. 2-4, shows Mongiardo with 43 percent to Conway’s 25 percent, with 29 percent undecided.

The survey of 655 likely Democratic voters was conducted by the Democratic polling firm Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group and had a 3.9-point margin of error.

The poll shows Conway’s biggest base of support is in the Louisville media market, where he led the lieutenant governor 40 percent to 29 percent.

The two men will meet in a May primary to decide whose name will appear on the November ballot. The winner will almost certainly face either Secretary of State Trey Grayson (R) or anti-tax activist Rand Paul (R).

While Conway may be trailing Mongiardo in the internal poll, the attorney general is leading the money chase. Conway ended 2009 with about $1 million more in his Senate campaign war chest than Mongiardo.

Conway had $1.7 million in cash on hand on Dec. 31, while Mongiardo had about $783,000. Conway raked in about $333,000 from October to December while Mongiardo raised more than $225,000 in that time period.

In Wednesday’s news release, Mongiardo spokesman Kim Geveden said momentum is on Mongiardo’s side but there is a lot of work left to do.

“While 29% of Democratic primary voters are still undecided, our work is not finished,” Geveden said. “Jack can finance his campaign with millions he’s invested in a Texas natural gas company, but Daniel is used to being outspent. … We will have the financial resources to compete on the airwaves and have the forces on the ground to win in May.”