It’s no surprise that the political spotlight of the Bay State is focused more on who will helm the state’s capital city instead of the state itself. The election for mayor of The Hub is looming over the Boston Harbor horizon while that for Massachusetts governor isn’t until next year but the field is wide open. A recent poll conducted by Western New England University shows that gubernatorial interest is piquing and sitting Attorney General Martha Coakley may be the next Massachusetts governor.
The survey was taken of 431 registered voters and shows that, as of now at least, Coakley and liberal political sentiments are lengths ahead of the pack that includes Republican bidder Charlie Baker and Massachusetts Treasurer Steve Grossman.
But as Tim Vercellotti, director of the Polling Institute and a professor of political science at Western New England University, warns, there’s plenty of time left up on the game clock.
“These numbers provide benchmarks against which to compare future surveys in the contest,” Vercellotti said in a press release. “There’s no question that Democrats hold an early advantage, but 13 months is an eternity in politics and a lot can happen during that time.”
52 percent of those questioned were favorable towards Coakley, while Baker and Grossman were each favored by 26 and 22 percent respectively. 42 percent hadn’t even heard of Grossman, while 31 percent hadn’t of Baker either.
Interestingly, though, when asked straight up to favor just Grossman or Baker, a whopping 43 percent sided with Grossman while Baker only garnered the support of 30 percent. That phenomenon could likely be attributed to Coakley pulling advocacy from Grossman’s campaign, showing just how widely known and respected the AG is at this point in the game.
As noted, it’s still an early leg of the governor’s race and Boston still has to consider someone not named Menino to fill his soon-to-be vacant City Hall office. But it’s a good indicator of things to come. Anything could happen to disrupt the majority’s content of Coakley and in the end, Don Berwick, with 7 percent favorability and unknown to 69 percent, could pull a major upset out of his hat.
