55-year incumbent Rep. John Dingle, D-MI, trails by 4 points

A new independent poll has the dean of the U.S. House, Rep. John Dingell, trailing his Republican opponent, Rob Steele, by 4 percentage points.

The automated phone survey of 300 people in the 15th Congressional District showed Steele getting 43.8% of the vote. Dingell, a Dearborn Democrat and the longest-serving member of Congress, got 39.5%. About 11% were undecided. The gap is within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 5.6 percentage points. The poll was conducted Monday.

Dingell's campaign said the survey -- conducted by the Rossman Group of Lansing and Team TelCom -- is a Republican front and is contradicted by other polls in recent weeks.

Team TelCom's president Gary Reed has Republican ties, but Kelly Rossman-McKinney, CEO of the Rossman Group, has Democratic roots.