Sen. Scott Brown's job approval has climbed since May despite the fact that Elizabeth Warren is leading by six points among likely voters in the U.S. Senate race.
Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., shakes hands with supporters during a walking tour of downtown Dedham, Mass. as he campaigns for re-election Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
Sen. Scott Brown's job approval by region
- Western Massachusetts
- 48 percent approve
- 26 percent disapprove
- 66 percent approve
- 27 percent disapprove
- 62 percent approve
- 33 percent disapprove
- 55 percent approve
- 30 percent disapprove
Follow the MassLive.com political team on Twitter
SPRINGFIELD - At a time where congressional approval ratings are consistently dismal with the partisan gridlock in Washington, the junior U.S. senator from Massachusetts is seeing his own numbers climb.
A new poll conducted by Western New England University's Polling Institute through a partnership with MassLive.com and The Republican, shows that Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown's job approval rating has grown to 55 percent among registered voters and two additional percentage points among likely voters.
Thirty percent of likely voters said they disapprove of the way Brown is doing the job and 12 percent said they weren't sure or refused to answer the question, according tot he survey.
In the poll conducted in late May, 51 percent of the registered Massachusetts voters surveyed said they approve of the way Brown represents the Bay State in Washington.
Brown, who is in a heated re-election campaign against Democrat Elizabeth Warren, is trailing the Harvard Law professor by six percentage points in regards to likely voters, according to the telephone survey conducted between Sept. 6-13.
Among members of his own party, which make up 11 percent of the state's registered voters, 92 percent say they approve of the way Brown is conducting his duties as a senator.
Thirty percent of Democrats approve while 58 percent said they do not, but in the case of independents, which make up more than half of the registered voters in the state, Brown's approval rating is a solid 67 percent.
When broken down according to gender, Brown's job approval is strong among both men and women with 62 and 53 percent, respectively.
Warren and Brown have similar favorability ratings among likely voters, with slightly more than half of those surveyed viewing them favorably and about one-third viewing them unfavorably.
Favorability ratings for the larger sample of all registered voters, however, show Warren has made significant progress since the May poll. In the latest survey, among all registered voters, 54 percent view Warren favorably, 28 percent view her unfavorably, and 11 percent have no opinion.
Warren's favorability rating has climbed 13 percentage points since late May, and her unfavorability rating is virtually unchanged, while the percentage of the electorate that has no opinion about her has dropped by 10 points.
In contrast, Brown's favorability rating among all registered voters has changed only slightly since late May, with 52 percent viewing him favorably, up three points, and 30 percent viewing him unfavorably, down two points. Eleven percent of voters said they had no opinion, down from 16 percent in May.
The poll of 545 registered voters has a 4.2 percent margin of error, while the sample of 444 likely voters has a 4.6 percent margin of error.