Despite being a Republican in one of the bluest states in the nation, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) is wildly popular with his constituents, a majority of whom say the freshman Senator deserves to be reelected next year according to a new Suffolk University poll.
Nearly six in ten respondents in the poll of likely voters said they have a favorable opinion of Brown. And in hypothetical head-to-head matchups, Brown led all but one Democrat thrown against him by at least 15 points. Brown’s only close contest, a five point lead, came against former Sen. Joe Kennedy, who has already ruled out a future Senate bid.
A 58% majority of respondents said they have a favorable opinion of Brown, versus only 22% who said they view him unfavorably. Further, 55% said Brown deserves to be reelected, while 29% said he does not.
In the theoretical pairings, Brown topped Gov. Deval Patrick by 15 points, 52% to 37%. No other candidate came within 20 points of matching him. Brown bested Vicki Kennedy (52%-30%), Rep. Michael Capuano (52%-26%), Rep. Ed Markey (53%-26%), Lt. Gov. Tim Murray (51%-23%), and the virtually unknown Setti Waren (52%-9%).
In releasing the poll, Suffolk wrote that Brown appeared to be “virtually untouchable” based on his wide leads and high favorability.
Brown, who won a special election last year to fill the the late Ted Kennedy’s seat, has performed extremely well in early polls. A survey by Western New England College showed Brown with double-digit leads on a pair of Democratic challengers, while a PPP poll showed him comfortably leading a range of potential opponents.
That WENC poll also found that 57% of voters approve of Brown’s job performance, compared to 24% who disapproved.
The Suffolk poll was conducted April 3-5 among 500 likely voters. It has a margin of error of 4.4%.
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