Elizabeth Warren leads Senator Scott Brown by seven points in the race for a Massachusetts Senate seat, according to a new University of Massachusetts at Lowell/Boston Herald poll.

At 49-42, it’s the Wall Street critic's biggest lead yet, according to the Boston Herald, and comes only two weeks after a similar finding in another poll.

The survey of 505 registered voters taken Dec. 1-6 had a margin of error of 5 points, and the total includes "leaners," or voters “leaning” toward each candidate. If you discount leaners, Warren leads 46 to 41.

The last UMass/Boston Herald poll in September showed Brown leading 41 to 38.

Brown, a freshman Republican, won a special election in January 2010 to fill the remainder of the term of the late Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy, who died of a brain tumor in August 2009.

Warren — a prominent consumer activist and former official in President Barack Obama's administration — has campaigned heavily, according to Reuters, recently running a TV advertisement about her life story, "raising her name recognition with voters."

Warren created the Obama administration's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and led a panel created by Congress to examine how bank bailout money was being spent.

The Harvard Law School professor has judged most of those surveyed in the UMass poll as likely to do a better job looking out for middle class families.

Confirming the increasing support for Warren, a UMass-Amherst poll of registered voters last week, reported by Politico, put Warren up 4 points over Brown, 43 percent to 39 percent.

According to that poll, two of the most common words to describe Warren were reportedly "liberal" and "socialist" while the most common word used to describe Brown was "moderate."

Politico noted, however, that the support of "likely" Massachusetts voters, rather than "registered" voters, was preferable.