The Hiller Instinct: Hiller Instinct: Governor's race poll

Deval Patrick was expected to get a bump when he won his party's endorsement at the Democratic Convention early this month. But our poll says he got much more a mountain of momentum.

In our latest poll, Patrick is now number one among likely Democratic primary voters...beating Tom Reilly by six percentage points, and Chris Gabrieli by nine...with 21 percent undecided.

Suffolk University pollster, Professor David Paleologos says, "Deval Patrick is in a great spot, he enters the summer the front-runner, he spent not a dime on television, he's had free advertising and a passion to campaign, what more could a democrat ask for?"

Patrick's gains come at Tom Reilly's expense. Before today, Reilly was the frontrunner in all of our polls:

Prof. Paleologos says, "Tom Reilly's in deep trouble, he's at his lowest numbers since we've began polling this in Feb. Of 2005, and it clearly looks like people are going to be voting the ins out and the outs in."

Chris Gabrieli continues to gain, and is now right behind Reilly.

"Chris Gabrieli has a lot going for him, he's up 7 percent since May, he's competitive, made his 15 percent at the Convention, and he's within 9 points of the lead, that's not a bad place to be entering the summer," Paleologos says.

Hiller asks, "He's a player?"

"He is a player, and he's competitive and has a full war chest going into the fall."

Looking ahead to November, all three Democrats beat Republican Kerry Healey...with Independent Christy Mihos getting about ten per cent, and Grace Ross of the Green-Rainbow party barely a blip.

Coming up on 7news at 11, Deval Patrick reacts to his new status...as the new leader of the Democratic pack.

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