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Ohio voters remain split on re-electing President Obama, while Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) begins his re-election campaign with sizable but not overwhelming leads over three possible Republican rivals, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released early Thursday.

Nearly half -- 49 percent -- of Buckeye State approve of the job Obama is doing as president, while 45 percent disapprove. That is a slight improvement from the previous poll, conducted in mid-March, when 47 percent of voters approved of Obama's job performance, and 48 percent disapproved.

But Obama has lost ground in a matchup against a generic Republican. In March, Obama led a generic Republican by seven points (41 percent to 34 percent), but that lead is now only two points (41 percent to 39 percent). Voters are split evenly, 47 percent to 47 percent, on whether Obama deserves to be re-elected. And a majority of voters, 55 percent, disapproves of the job Obama is doing handling the economy.

Meanwhile, nearly half of voters, 49 percent, also approve of the job Brown is doing in the Senate, but only 30 percent disapprove. That is a slight improvement from March, when 43 percent of voters approved of Brown. Asked whether Brown deserves to be re-elected, 49 percent of Ohio voters believe that he does, while just 31 percent believe he doesn't.

Matched up against three possible Republican candidates, Brown posts healthy leads but fails to crack the 50-percent mark. Brown leads former Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, 44 percent to 35 percent. He has double-digit advantages against Treasurer Josh Mandel (45 percent to 31 percent) and former state Sen. Kevin Coughlin (44 percent to 28 percent).

Blackwell, the 2006 Republican gubernatorial nominee, has the early advantage in a GOP primary. Among registered Republicans, Blackwell earns a third of the vote in a primary matchup against Mandel (17 percent) and Coughlin (5 percent), but 43 percent of Republican voters are undecided.