Londonderry , New Hampshire ( CNN ) -- A new CNN/ORC poll shows a statistical dead heat between New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and her GOP opponent Scott Brown , with Shaheen at 49 % , Brown at 47 % , and a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4 % . Perhaps even more telling is another politician 's approval rating , and he 's not even in the Granite State . President Barack Obama has only a 39 % approval rating in New Hampshire , the new poll shows . Fifty-seven percent of voters say they disapprove of the way he is handling his job . That 's a far fall for a president who beat his Republican opponents here in the Granite State overwhelmingly in both 2008 and just two years ago in 2012 . And that 's part of the problem . Brown and his supporters are tying the incumbent senator to the president , as exemplified by a recent campaign sign from Brown supporters : `` Stand with Obama , vote for Shaheen . '' The '99 percent ' factor . It 's why Brown rarely speaks a sentence without tying Shaheen to the president . `` She 's voting with the president 99 % of the time , '' Brown told us over and over , just has he did minutes earlier at a small business event here earlier this week . Shaheen is just as disciplined with her responses . `` You know , Scott Brown can talk about 99 percent all he wants , '' Shaheen told us later in Exeter . `` This race is not between the President and Scott Brown , this race is between me and Scott Brown . '' Shaheen has something going for her that some Senate colleagues around the country in tough races do not . She is a former governor who is not only well known , but relatively well liked . Her favorability rating in the CNN/ORC poll is 52 % , much higher than the president 's . Brown is under water -- with 50 % saying they have an unfavorable view of him , 48 % favorable . Shaheen tries to exploit that by painting him as an opportunist -- repeatedly reminding voters that two years ago Brown was a senator from Massachusetts , until he lost . `` When he was in Washington representing Massachusetts he was there for the corporate special interests , '' Shaheen told CNN . `` I 'm going to continue to remind people what he represented when he was in Massachusetts and it was n't our middle-class families , it was n't our small businesses , it was n't what 's good for New Hampshire , '' Shaheen told us . Brown and other Republicans insist he has beaten the carpetbagger issue by visiting with New Hampshire voters all over the state ( he still drives the beat-up pickup truck that became famous in 2010 when he won Ted Kennedy 's Senate seat in a Massachusetts special election ) . When asked about his move on the campaign trail , Brown notes that he was born in the Granite State and has family ties that go back generations . `` We have long and strong ties to New Hampshire and so does Senator Shaheen . We both care about New Hampshire so let 's talk about where we 're going , not about where we 've been , '' Brown said . Fear-mongering ? Another way strategists here in both parties agree Brown has made gains is by seizing on ripped-from-the-headlines national-security issues like the threat from ISIS and Ebola , and playing them as examples of how Washington is broken . Shaheen calls it fear-mongering , which Brown naturally dismisses . `` What I hear is that people are deeply concerned about the border , they 're deeply concerned about ISIS , they 're deeply concerned about the lack of clear and coherent foreign policy , and the fact that Senator Shaheen is on the Foreign Relations Committee and has endorsed those incoherent policies from day one , '' Brown told us . The ISIS threat does hit home here in a unique way . The first American beheaded , James Foley , was from New Hampshire . National versus local issues . While Brown 's campaign aides are quite candid that they believe their path to victory is to nationalize the race by linking Shaheen to the President and playing up national-security issues , Shaheen is trying hard to keep it local . She is already known as someone with exceptional constituent services , now as senator and before that as governor . Even GOP sources here speak admiringly of her commitment to returning regularly for local events throughout her last six years in the Senate . Shaheen insists that is what people are most about . `` It 's the people who are working now up at the Berlin prison because I went in and fought to get that prison open after it sat empty for 12 years , its the 12 people who are in their homes because I worked with them when they were being foreclosed on , '' Shaheen told us . `` I was at Lincoln Financial in Concord yesterday I did n't get one question about a national issue , '' she said . Keeping it local is a national Democratic strategy , in a climate where disapproval of the President and Washington in general leaves them little choice . Democrats are using it in North Carolina , too , with incumbent Kay Hagan as they pummel her GOP opponent on state education issues . Whether that strategy can work here and elsewhere may determine whether Democrats can keep control of the Senate during Obama 's last two years in office . CNN 's Adam Levy contributed to this report .
A new CNN/ORC poll shows a statistical dead heat . Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is keeping it local in her campaign issues . GOP opponent Scott Brown tries to tie Shaheen to Obama . The President has only a 39 % approval rating in New Hampshire .