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

Once again, the Democratic race for Governor has been turned upside down, and one candidate has really gone up.

Chris Gabrieli leads our new 7News-Suffolk University poll, with 32%...8 points ahead of Deval Patrick, (last month's leader)...and 12 up on Tom Reilly, who not so long ago was on top...

Suffolk University professor, David Paleologos says, "Chris Gabrieli has taken this by storm, the democratic primary, you look at all the demographics, age, gender, political party, geography... He's winning across the board. He's even winning among older voters who are a reilly stronghold."

Gabrieli says he's not surprised. I ask him, "What do you think you're doing that's working so well?"

"I think one reason is conveying I want to be the Governor of Massachusetts, not the Democratic Governor, not the Republican Governor, the Governor."

Another reason could be the more than $7 million dollars of his own money Gabrieli has spent on his campaign, much of it on T.V. ads...

Gabrieli says, "Money allows you to put your message in front of voters, it doesn't do a thing to make them decide whether they agree with you or not."

Gabrieli has already heard the whispers:

I ask, "Do you have any concern that you will be criticized for trying to buy it?"

"When you're running for office, you get criticized every which way."

But, right now, all the ways are going his way.

Including our poll finding that while just 31% think Massachusetts is headed in right direction, 48%--nearly half--of all likely voters think Massachusetts is on the wrong track

Paleologos says, "This tells us there's voter anger, and that anger will be vented in the Governor's race. You're running as outsider, it benefits you tremendously, if you're a current office holder, it's going to hurt."

If your question now is, "Well, what about Kerry Healey...or Christy Mihos? How does Gabrieli do against them?"...then my answer is, "See you at 11, and you can see for yourself."

Related link:
Suffolk University poll results
Suffolk University: Gabrieli New Front-Runner in Democratic Governor’s Race

(Copyright (c) 2006 Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)