Poll: Bay State Clinton fans lukewarm about Obama

June 11, 2008 06:58 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Globe Staff

A new poll shows that Democrat Barack Obama holds a substantial lead over Republican John McCain in Massachusetts, but still has work to do among supporters of Hillary Clinton.

The 7News/Suffolk University survey released this afternoon shows Obama with a 53 percent to 30 percent lead in the Bay State, a usually-reliable Democratic state in presidential elections.

But his lead would be even bigger if he could corral Clinton backers. In the survey, 26 percent of her supporters said they were undecided and 20 percent said they would vote for McCain.

"While November is still five months off, with only 54 percent of of Massachusetts Clinton voters saying they'll vote for Obama, it portends unity problems in swing states where the margin is much closer," David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk's political research center, said in a statement.

The 54 percent of Clinton loyalists who would support McCain would jump to 80 percent, however, if Obama picked her as his running mate. But a majority of Obama supporters don't want him to choose her.

Also, the poll found that a plurality of Republican voters in Massachusetts don't believe that McCain will pick former Bay State governor Mitt Romney as his running mate.

The survey was conducted Sunday through Tuesday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.