Massachusetts Senate Race Testing Politics of Likability Elizabeth Warren, at a St. Patrick's Day Breakfast in South Boston, hopes to persuade voters to oust Senator Scott P. Brown, seated at right. Mr. Brown is playing to an Everyman image. BOSTON - Senator Scott P. Brown posed for pictures with President Obama two days in a row last week, smiling as Mr. Obama signed two bills that Mr. Brown co-sponsored. Never mind that he is a Republican seeking re-election in a season of strident partisanship. Mr. Brown is on a mission to persuade the voters of Massachusetts that he is as independent as politicians come. His carefully cultivated image - of a genial Everyman beholden to no one, flashing a moderate streak even as his friend and erstwhile mentor Mitt Romney hews to conservative ideas in the Republican presidential primary contest - is at the core of Mr. Brown's strategy in what has become a tight race against Elizabeth Warren, his presumed Democratic opponent. Ms. Warren, the Harvard professor and nationally known consumer advocate, entered the race beloved by the national Democratic base and has enchanted party loyalists here. She is also raising far more money than Mr. Brown, including an extraordinary $6.9 million in the first quarter of this year, compared with $3.4 million for him. But for all her fans and campaign riches, Ms. Warren, has a lot of work ahead to persuade voters to oust Mr. Brown. In a Boston Globe poll released last week, 57 percent of respondents said Mr. Brown was the most likable candidate, compared with 23 percent for Ms. Warren. Asked which candidate was best able to work with the opposite party, 49 percent chose Mr. Brown and 27 percent Ms. Warren. Over all, the poll found a dead heat, with 37 percent supporting Mr. Brown, 35 percent behind Ms. Warren and 26 percent undecided. But Mr. Brown had a 3-to-1 advantage with independent voters, who make up more than half the Massachusetts electorate. He even won praise from Democrats, 40 percent of whom said he was the most likable candidate. Such numbers suggest that Mr. Brown may be having some success in his effort to define Ms. Warren as a Harvard elitist and a partisan "rock-thrower." Meanwhile, he is playing up his Average Joe qualities on the campaign trail, using not only his famous pickup truck but also the same barn jacket that helped him beat a much better-known Democrat in the 2010 special election for what he called "the people's seat." His recent schedule has been full of pickup basketball games, chili cook-offs and other events that showcase that persona. Without the advantage of incumbency, Ms. Warren often relies on local Democratic officials or labor leaders to introduce her around. And while she is poised and energetic on the campaign trail, giving a stump speech that details her rise from the daughter of a maintenance man in Oklahoma to a "fancy professor" who champions the middle class, hers is a different kind of interaction with voters. She is new at it, and learning on an unusually prominent stage. Despite her folksy approach, the response of those who meet her for the first time is often polite formality, not the warmer, more familiar type of exchange that voters tend to have with Mr. Brown. At a St. Patrick's Day lunch in Quincy, Ms. Warren gamely joined a dais full of local politicians and offered a few jokes that promptly fell flat. "I'll get there with you guys," she ventured after a joke about Rick Santorum fizzled. Yet two days later, at a much larger breakfast in South Boston, Ms. Warren breezed through a comedy routine, drawing particular laughs when she said she had heard that Mr. Brown's barn jacket cost $600. "Wow, here's a guy who could use a consumer advocate," she said. Like Mr. Brown, she is also using social media to share personal details that might help her connect. On Saturday, she posted a picture of herself on Facebook dyeing eggs with her young granddaughters. She has posted on Facebook and Twitter about her golden retriever, Otis, and about the fact that she bakes "a wicked apple pie." While may voters who meet her are noncommittal, Ms. Warren frequently encounters one or two people who know her background and are already loyal fans. "She is really an expert economically," said Delia Roffo, a self-described liberal Democrat who wanted her picture taken with Ms. Warren in Brighton, a working-class neighborhood of Boston. I think it'll be a close race, if only because Scott Brown isn't a right-wing Republican. But I am really confident she's going to make it.