BATON ROUGE - A new poll in Louisiana's U.S. Senate race shows Republican Treasurer John Kennedy's lead slipping after months as the front-runner in the competition.

Republican U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany has closed the gap in the latest survey released Wednesday by Southern Media and Opinion Research.

Kennedy leads the pack of contenders with 17 percent, and Boustany is close behind at 15 percent, within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

Among the top-polling Democrats, lawyer Caroline Fayard had the support of 11 percent of the likely Louisiana voters surveyed. Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell was next at 9 percent.

Twenty-four candidates are vying for the seat on the Nov. 8 ballot. White supremacist David Duke received 3 percent in the poll.