Gov. Deval Patrick has a four-point lead over Republican adversary Charlie Baker, leading his opponent 43 percent to 39 percent, according to a Boston Globe poll released on Sunday.
Independent candidate Tim Cahill lags further behind at eight percent while Green-Rainbow candidate Jill Stein rounds out the poll with two percent.
Though Patrick’s lead is slim, it has improved since last month when the Democrat was nearly tied with Baker, the former at 35 percent and the latter at 34 percent.
Accordingly, the poll indicates that while Patrick’s approval ratings have increased among voters, Baker’s have decreased.
More voters said they view Patrick favorably rather than unfavorably for the first time since December 2008, with 49 percent saying they viewed him positively as opposed to 43 percent who said they viewed him negatively.
On the other hand, Baker’s unfavorable ratings increased from 25 percent to 40 percent in the last month while his favorable rating increased from 31 percent to 38 percent. According to the aforementioned figures, this was the first Globe poll in which voters said they viewed Baker more unfavorably than favorably.
Additionally, 44 percent of respondents said they found Patrick more likable than Baker, who trailed behind at 25 percent in likability.
The University of New Hampshire’s Survey Center conducted the Globe survey. Director Andrew E. Smith told the Globe that Patrick’s 44 percent approval rate does not portend well for the Democrat as a 46 percent rate is generally required to win re-election.
However, Smith said Patrick could still pull through because Massachusetts continues to be highly Democratic and Baker has alienated some voters.
“Patrick may be able to weather the bad political storm Democrats are facing in Massachusetts and across the country,” he said.
The poll was conducted between Oct. 17 and Oct. 22 and included 519 likely voters in the upcoming gubernatorial election. It had a margin of error of 4.3 percent.
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