Deval Patrick Maintains His Lead in Massachusetts Governor Race

As we move closer to September when campaigns really start to heat up, the race for Massachusetts governor stands about where it's been, with Democrat Deval Patrick, the incumbent, holding a modest lead over Republican Charlie Baker in the three way race, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted July 22.

Patrick leads Baker, until recently head of a large health insurance company, by 38 percent to 32 percent with 17 percent for Democrat-turned-independent Tim Cahill, the state treasurer. Twelve percent are undecided. The margin of error is 4.5 points.

The pecking order was the same as in Rasmussen's poll last month when Patrick led Baker 41 percent to 34 percent with Cahill at 16 percent. A Boston Globe survey conducted June 17-23 had Patrick ahead 38 percent to 31 percent.

Voters are split on Patrick's performance as governor with 50 percent approving and 49 percent disapproving. But that's a big rebound from last November, a time when economic woes were dragging down the poll numbers of many governors. At that time, 64 percent disapproved of the job he was doing while 34 percent approved.

Patrick is seen favorably by 51 percent of voters and unfavorably by 48 percent. Baker is seen favorably by 44 percent and unfavorably by 38, percent, but he still has to make himself better known to voters, 17 percent of whom do not know enough about him to be sure of their opinion.

Cahill is drawing somewhat more voters from Patrick than Cahill, but not by a big number. He gets 20 percent of the Democratic vote and 14 percent of the Republican vote. Cahill, who has a conservative bent despite his Democratic background, had caused enough concern for the GOP that the Republican Governors Association pounded him with about $1 million in TV and radio attack ads, according to the Boston Globe.

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