MA: Poll: Bellwether town of Waltham prefers Gov. Patrick (D)

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, NOV. 1, 2010…. Gov. Deval Patrick holds a seven-point edge over Republican rival Charles Baker in a bellwether poll released Monday by Suffolk University that turned to Waltham voters for help predicting Tuesday’s gubernatorial election.

Patrick received 47 percent of the vote in the Boston suburb compared with 40 percent for Baker. Treasurer Tim Cahill, an independent, took 9 percent and Green-Rainbow party candidate Jill Stein finished with 1 percent.

The poll, taken over the weekend, showed that just 3 percent of voters in Waltham were undecided. The final results included voters who were committed or leaning toward a candidate, as well as undecided voters who were asked to state a preference.

The overall undecided population in Waltham – 15 percent of those surveyed – broke strongly for Baker when pressed to make up their mind.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Waltham is a bellwether? Huh.

Personally, I think it's ridiculous to call Waltham a bellwether too. Considering how fluid the map is, it's ridiculous to call any town a bellwether. The Brown '10 path to victory was quite different from the Romney '02 path to victory, which isn't even recognizable when compared to the Weld '90 path to victory.

And besides, there's no real challenge to Ed Markey for the House race (unlike, say, the challenge to Barney Frank), so turnout is likely to be lower there, on average, than in MA-04, MA-05, MA-06, and MA-10.

The only interesting thing here is that undecideds are breaking "strongly" for Baker when pushed, which could make for an interesting night.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

I would trade every GOP pick up for Charlie Baker winning.  Hell, I would trade my left foot for Charlie Baker. It is simply unimaginable for me that even Mass is coming out so heavily for Deval. Its probably because of O'Donnell, dragging down even the sane, and competent with her up in the North.

Overheard last night:

"Deval was beatable. Baker was a lousy candidate."

"But who else was there to run?"

"..."

"Exactly."