Updated, 6:25 p.m. A new poll commissioned by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee found vulnerable Rep. Bill Owens (D) ahead of Republican Matt Doheny by 12 points in a horse-race matchup.

In a head-to-head ballot test in the newly configured 21st district, Owens got 50 percent to Doheny’s 38 percent. Green Party candidate Donald Hassig pulled 4 percent, while 8 percent were undecided.

Redistricting did no favors for Owens, who won in 2010 against Doheny and a third candidate with only 48 percent of the vote. The partisan tilt of the upstate district remained about the same: tossup territory.

The new poll, conducted by respected Democratic firm Anzalone Liszt Research, found both candidates had strong name identification: 81 percent for Owens and 71 percent for Doheny.

Forty-one percent of those likely voters polled had a favorable opinion of Owens, while 17 had an unfavorable opinion of him and 24 percent had neutral feelings about him.

Doheny had a 27 percent favorable/19 percent unfavorable/25 percent neutral breakdown in the Democratic poll.

The survey used live telephone interviews of 400 likely voters. It was in the field from July 29-31. The margin of error was 4.9 points.

Update: “The fact that Bill Owens can’t break 50 percent as an incumbent in a poll commissioned by his own party is indicative of how much trouble he’s in this fall,” said Doheny spokesman Jude Seymour in a statement to Roll Call. “When people find out that Owens is part of job-killing agenda of this administration, that number is going to be much lower than 50 percent.”

Read the memo here:

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