| Suffolk University has released the guts of the poll it announced yesterday. Generally, the news continues to be pretty good for Deval Patrick. And the Healey camp has to be concerned that despite an unprecedented barrage of negative ads over the last couple of weeks, Patrick is still at +20% fav/unfav; Healey herself remains with higher unfav than fav; and the "soft on crime" label isn't sticking.
Here are some interesting bits from the poll.
Healey's favorable/unfavorable ratio is currently at 40/44. Her fav is up a bit from the Oct 5 poll (when it was at 34%), but her unfav has increased a point as well. It's hard to win when more people dislike you than like you. Patrick, in contrast, is at 51/31 (earlier reports incorrectly said it was 50/31), for a net of +20%.
Asked whether Deval Patrick is "soft on crime," only 32% (no doubt many of the same 33% who said they're voting for Healey) said yes; 41% said no. Relatedly, a large majority -- 62% -- of respondents said that the whole LaGuer kerfuffle either increased (27%) or had no effect (35%) on the likelihood that they'd vote for Patrick. And asked whether Kerry Healey is really tough on crime or only talks tough, 36% said she is tough, but 40% said she's a talker -- and, as noted yesterday, a majority of respondents (53%) said that the "recent tone of the Kerry Healey campaign" made it less likely that they'd vote for her.
Finally, and perhaps worst for Kerry Healey, a large majority of respondents say that MA is on the "wrong track" -- 53%, with only 28% saying it's going in the "right direction." If Kerry Healey can't turn those numbers around -- and it's hard to see how a barrage of negative anti-Patrick ads has any shot at doing so -- it's tough to see how she pulls out a win.
So, you know what, Kerry? Keep doing what you're doing. Keep trying to tear Deval Patrick down. You're driving up your own negatives, and you've still got a large gap to close, even with Patrick himself having handed you the unexpected gift of a screw-up on the LaGuer business. That won't happen again. What voters really want to know is this: do you actually have a vision for this state that goes beyond standing helplessly by while the legislature rolls right over you? So far, I'd say you don't. |
