John Koster emailed his list today, touting an internal poll (400 likely primary voters) showing him the "clear frontrunner" in the 1st Congressional District race, with 37 percent of the vote. Not surprising really, considering he's the only Republican in an otherwise crowded field.

But what is interesting about this poll is that it completely confirms a late January survey released by Darcy Burner, showing her the clear frontrunner among Democrats. "Among primary voters who vote for one of the Democratic candidates," Burner's pollsters reported, Burner led by a decisive 45 percent, followed by Laura Ruderman (15 percent), Steve Hobbs (13 percent), Suzan DelBene (12 percent), Roger Goodman (10 percent), and Darshan Rauniyar (5 percent).

Back when I posted on Burner's poll, an unnamed DelBene campaign insider (okay, it was Sandeep) called to complain that it was misleading, but when you extrapolate from Koster's published numbers, the results are almost identical. Of the 24 percent of likely primary voters who expressed a preference for a Democratic candidate in Koster's poll (the same subset Burner reported), 45.8 percent chose Burner, followed by Ruderman and Hobbs at 16.7 percent, DelBene at 12.5 percent, and Goodman and Rauniyar at 4.2 percent each.

Sure, 24 percent of 400 respondents isn't much of a sample, but when combined with the results from Burner's poll, the margin of error shrinks. And perhaps more significantly, Koster's poll shows almost zero movement in the Democratic race after two months of campaigning.

No doubt Koster's going to come out on top in the August primary, and by a wide margin. This is a swing district, and he faces no credible competition for Republican primary voters. As for the runner-up spot in this top-two primary, if the Democratic field remains largely unchanged, it shouldn't require much more than 20 percent of the vote.

The well-heeled/well-connected DelBene will surely enjoy a substantial cash advantage over her rivals, but with only four months to go, and this far back in the pack, she's going to need every penny.