The Hiller Instinct: Suffolk Poll

"One of the challenges in life is concentrating on the meaningful and letting the trivial take a back seat, and sometimes I feel like I'm in a profession now where that is completely upside down," the governor said last week.

What may actually be upside down is how the governor sees himself, compared to how you see him!  In our exclusive 7News-Suffolk University poll, 49% of the state's registered voters disapprove of the job he's doing. Only 40% approve.  Worse for Patrick: 47% say it's time to elect someone else...while just 34% think he deserves to be re-elected.

And when we asked voters to choose between Patrick and Treasurer Tim Cahill--who isn't even officially running yet--Cahill won...with 35% to Patrick's 30%. Another 30% were undecided.

"Deval Patrick leads among women and among Democrats, but Tim Cahill wins among men, independents and Republicans. We're already seeing a divided state and this could be a fight to the finish," Suffolk University pollster, Professor David Paleologos said.

The bad news for Patrick shouldn't make anyone else at the State House smile.  While voters trust the legislature more than the governor to solve the state's economic problems, 59% are not confident the State House will resolve the financial crisis...71% believe Massachusetts will become "Tax-achusetts" again.  Seventy-four percent do not expect there will be real reform on Beacon Hill this year...and 72% wish they could remove state officials for under performing.

"Voter anger resonated in this question. Number one, voters wanted immediacy--they want to be able to recall politicians if they're under-performing, and, number two, the margin was three to one... overwhelmingly," Paleologos said.

And voters aren't counting on another Massachusetts miracle to save the state. Very few think the economy will turn around this year, while more than half say the economy won't get better until 2011, or later.  I'm Andy Hiller, 7News.

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