Poll: only four in 10 approve of Governor Patrick's performance

April 11, 2008 04:45 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Globe Staff

Only about four out of 10 Massachusetts residents approve of the job Governor Deval Patrick is doing, according to a poll conducted for a Boston television station.

The poll conducted by SurveyUSA for WBZ-TV found that 41 percent of those contacted approved, while 49 percent disapproved, of Patrick’s performance. Another 9 percent were not sure.

Jon Keller, the station’s political analyst, said recent stories about the governor shopping a book proposal in New York while his casino proposal was defeated at the State House didn’t help his popularity.

But he also pointed out that the survey found that only 3 percent of those surveyed felt the state’s economy was strong. He suggested that Patrick might be taking some of the blame for the “economic anxiety” being felt by the populace.

“The governor is focused on implementing the economic agenda he laid out this week, which will spur the economy, create jobs, and make our roads and bridges safer,” said governor’s spokeswoman Becky Deusser.

SurveyUSA’s telephone poll of 551 registered voters was conducted Wednesday. The margin of error on the popularity question was plus or minus 4.3 percentage points; on the economic question, it was 4.2 percentage points, the company said on its website.

Ken Alper, news director at SurveyUSA, said previous surveys done by the company in Massachusetts have focused on adults, rather than registered voters. The lowest Patrick's popularity has been in those surveys was 43 percent in March 2007.