Rasmussen: Mass. Governor Election a Virtual Tie

The Massachusetts governor’s race is now closer than it has been all year.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state finds incumbent Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick with 46 percent support, while Republican challenger Charlie Baker gets 44 percent of the vote. Democrat-turned-Independent Tim Cahill remains a distant third with six percent. Three percent prefer some other candidate, but just one percent is still undecided.

The race now moves from Leans Democrat to a Toss-Up in the Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 Gubernatorial Scorecard.

Less than two weeks ago, Patrick held a 47 percent  to 42 percent lead over Baker. The incumbent has led the field in surveys since March, but Baker broke out of the 30s in mid-September as support for Cahill began to fade.

The survey of 750 likely voters in Massachusetts was conducted on Oct. 27, 2010, by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC.