Republican Rick Snyder's "one tough nerd" campaign ads have given him a substantial boost in the Michigan governor's race.

The Ann Arbor venture capitalist was down in single digits in earlier polls conducted by Lansing-based EPIC-MRA. But in a new EPIC-MRA poll released Friday, Snyder comes in third behind U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra and Attorney General Mike Cox among 400 likely GOP primary voters, with Hoekstra at 27 percent, Cox at 21 percent and Snyder at 12 percent.

Rick Snyder

Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard gets 10 percent and state Sen. Tom George 1 percent, with 26 percent undecided.

When voters are given brief descriptions of the Republican candidates, Snyder moves into second place, with Hoekstra at 29 percent and Snyder at 22 percent. Cox is then at 18 percent, Bouchard at 11 percent and George at 5 percent, with 15 percent undecided.

House Speaker Andy Dillon leads the field among 400 likely Democratic primary voters at 17 percent. Former Genesee County Treasurer Dan Kildee gets 12 percent, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero 8 percent and state Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith, 7 percent. Nearly half — 45 percent — are undecided.

Once 400 likely Democratic primary voters are given candidate descriptions, Dillon moves up to 24 percent and Smith and Kildee each get 14 percent, with Bernero at 13 percent and 24 percent undecided.

The poll was conducted Monday through Thursday for the Detroit Free Press and TV stations WXYZ of Detroit, WOOD in Grand Rapids, WILX in Lansing and WJRT in Flint.

It surveyed 600 people statewide and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. The questions on gubernatorial candidates that surveyed likely primary voters had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Snyder has poured at least $2.6 million of his own money into the race, enabling him to run a 60-second ad statewide on Super Bowl Sunday and a shorter ad that he began running this week.

He's the only candidate in either party to run ads, and has started airing them far earlier than candidates traditionally do in Michigan gubernatorial races.

The strategy was intended to increase the number of voters who recognize Snyder's name and have a favorable opinion of him, and poll results show it's working. Although only four in 10 likely voters recognize his name in the latest poll, that's twice as many as in late January. Snyder had been polling at 3 percent and now has moved into double digits.

The latest poll shows Cox has the highest name recognition in the race, with Bouchard not far behind. But voters appear to be shifting away from Cox to Snyder and Hoekstra, a congressman from Holland. Bouchard also has slipped slightly in the past month.