Romney getting crushed in Massachusetts

Mitt Romney's chances of winning Massachusetts in the election this fall continue to look pretty minuscule. He trails Barack Obama 55-39 in the state where he served as Governor. That at least represents some tightening from our last poll in March when he was down 58-35, but it doesn't suggest much of a chance to make the state competitive.

Romney does not have a good image in Massachusetts. Only 39% of voters have a favorable opinion of him to 56% with a negative one. When they reflect on Romney's tenure as Governor, only 40% say they approve of the work he did to 46% who disapprove. That represents a downturn since 3 months ago when voters in the state approved of his time in office by a 48/40 spread, suggesting that the Obama's campaigns attacks on his tenure are having an impact.

Massachusetts voters don't even really regard Romney as one of their own despite his time as Governor- only 25% say they consider him to be a Bay Stater, while 65% say they do not. There doesn't seem to be a state that wants to lay claim to Romney- when we polled Michigan last month, only 24% of voters said they considered him to be one of their own to 65% who said they did not.

Obama has decent approval numbers in the state, with 53% of voters giving him good marks to 43% who disapprove. The two candidates are getting about equal portions of their party bases, with Obama taking 85% of Democrats and Romney 86% of Republicans. Romney's up 47-45 with independents, but that's a sharp contrast from the 57-33 lead Scott Brown had with them in the Senate numbers we released yesterday.

We also took a look at the shape of the race if two third party candidates were included- Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party hopeful Jill Stein. Stein actually has 35% name recognition in her home state, and pulls 3% in a 4 way contest. Johnson is known to fewer than 20% of voters and gets only 1%. Combined the third party candidates take slightly more from Obama than Romney, reducing the President's advantage to 53-38.

Romney as the Republican nominee will make Massachusetts closer than it was in 2008. But it doesn't look like it will be too close.

Full results here

Comments

[Mark B.]

Thanks for polling Johnson again, and thanks for trying a 4-way contest! This Democrat would like to see more of both of those things in public polling.