Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has officially lost his status as the most popular governor in the nation, according to a recent poll by Morning Consult. Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon rose to the top spot, with Baker falling to third.
Morning Consult, a technology company that collects and shares global survey research, released its latest quarterly poll on the nation’s gubernatorial approval rankings on Jan. 16.
From Oct. 1 through Dec. 31 last year, the site conducted nearly 500,000 surveys with responses from registered voters in the U.S. to determine governor rankings for the fourth quarter of 2019, according to the company’s website.
While the top three governors in Morning Consult’s recent poll each have an approval rating of 69 percent, Baker holds the highest disapproval rating of the three at 19 percent.
Jeffery Berry, a political science professor at Tufts University, said while Baker no longer sits atop the rankings, it is not indicative of any drastic shifts in popularity for the governor.
“His ranking has not dropped that much. I wouldn’t conclude that he’s become a lot less popular in Massachusetts,” Berry said. “He remains very popular and compares favorably with almost all the other governors in the United States.”
Baker is one of three Republican governors in traditionally blue states to rank among Morning Consult’s top ten most popular governors alongside Maryland’s Larry Hogan and Vermont’s Phil Scott. Berry said their appeal to both sides of the political spectrum is key to their approval.
“I believe that it’s at the heart of their popularity,” Berry said. “Baker surely has much more support by Democrats in this state than, say, Andrew Cuomo has from Republicans in New York.”
Jordan Berg Powers, executive director of progressive advocacy coalition Mass Alliance, said the media’s emphasis on polls like these decontextualize Baker’s actions and policies.
“The reason that Charlie Baker is so popular is because the only story reporters ever run is the fact that he’s a Republican who’s super popular,” Powers said. “They don’t know anything about his policies. They don’t know about any of the corruption.”
Powers said polls typically are “not real science,” as there can easily be faults in the way they are conducted. To truly gain an understanding of what results indicate, Powers said people must seek out more context.
“The news media just runs press releases on polling because polling has the allure of being nonpartisan while giving people literally no actual information,” Powers said, “which is the sweet spot for our media system.”
Aileen Ledingham, 58, of Waltham said she did not approve of the governor, recalling that Baker had refrained from participating in the 2016 presidential election.
“I believe I heard him say [he had not voted] for president,” Ledingham said. “People like that have created our situation. It’s not a good way to lead.”
Bruce Boer, 24, of Brookline said he watched Baker’s State of the Commonwealth address Tuesday and approves of the governor.
“He’s the perfect leader for Massachusetts,” Boer said. “The perfect counterbalance for the Democratic [chambers].”
In regard to Baker’s shift in ranking, Matt Mues, 34, from the South End said he found little significance in the recent poll.
“He’s harmless,” Mues said. “Whether he’s first or third it doesn’t affect my daily life.”
