Mitt's Numbers Take a Dive

Are Mitt's out of state chickens coming home to roost? The fine folks at Blue Mass Group point to a new State House News Poll with the following numbers:

Tom Reilly	49.1%
Mitt Romney	39.6%

That's nearly a ten point spread, though technically not out of the margin of error. While it's dangerous to compare results of different polls, it's certainly the most we've seen Reilly win by. The State House News Roundup article also notes the following:

[Romney's] unfavorable rating surpassed 40 percent. The poll indicated he's well-thought of even among some people who don't think he's turning in a strong performance as governor: his personal approval rating was 55 percent, but his positive job-performance rating was 46.3 percent. Another 8.3 rated his performance "average."

This is pretty consistent with previous polls we've discussed here, though even worse for the governor. The people of Massachusetts seem to generally be OK with Romney as a person, but they are increasingly unhappy with his style of leadership.

In addition to the Romney-Reilly matchup, the poll showed Secretary of the Commonwealth Galvin in a dead heat with Romney, and Reilly winning a primary with Galvin and Deval Patrick. Of course, one shouldn't take poll results this early in the race too seriously, and to his credit Reilly is not. The Springfield Republican quotes:

Corey D. Welford, a spokesman for Reilly, responded by saying there's a long way to go, and the attorney general is not focused on poll results. "The attorney general believes that if you do your job well, the future will take care of itself."

And that's really what Reilly should be doing as the frontrunner. If he can turn his Big Dig investigation into gold for Massachusetts taxpayers, folks who voted for Romney in 2002 will have to consider dropping their guy in favor of someone who gets results.