How about a Brown-Coakley rematch?

But a recent survey by the Democratic polling company Public Policy Polling casts doubt on that pat conclusion.

Brown is popular and comfortably ahead of any potential Democratic rival. But Coakley comes closest to giving him a real fight in 2012. According to this poll, which surveyed 957 Massachusetts voters from June 2 to 5, Brown beats Coakley 49 to 40 percent, with 10 percent undecided. She’s not in the race, but she’s the most likable and well-known Democrat in the survey.

Yet, as local Democrats bemoan the low wattage of the current field, it’s funny who gets written off as damaged goods and who doesn’t. Warren Tolman — a former state senator who ran for lieutenant governor on a losing Democratic ticket and then went on to lose a 2002 Democratic gubernatorial primary bid — is touted by some as a strong Brown challenger. Republican Charlie Baker ran a lackluster gubernatorial campaign that is considered a warm-up for another run.

Washington Democrats are also in the hunt for a star. Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard law professor beloved by Cambridge liberals, may fit their bill, partly because Senate Republicans are blocking her appointment as head of a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Warren would have some catching up to do; she gets 32 percent of the vote against Brown and most voters don’t know she is.

Coakley is not interested in a rematch, according to spokesman Corey Welford. But the polling results are welcome, he said, given the conventional wisdom that she was “politically dead.’’

After losing to Brown, Coakley was supposed to know her place: political Siberia. But she didn’t accept the destination. After angering Democrats by losing to Brown, she irked them further by running for reelection.