A new poll suggests voters in Massachusetts still have mixed feelings about the performance of President Joe Biden.
Biden's best marks in the new survey of likely Massachusetts voters, conducted by pollster Advantage Inc., were on his response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with 55.7% of respondents approving.
"Even if people don't look at this as something where the U.S. is directly getting involved, there is a little bit more, a little bit more support for the president there. Not much, but a bump," said Advantage Inc. Vice President Jim Eltringham during an online press conference introducing the poll.
Overall, Biden's approval in Massachusetts stands at 53.9% with 44.3% disapproving, up slightly from a February survey from the same firm showing Biden with 52% approval. On inflation, voters are nearly split, with 48.4% disapproving of Biden's performance and 48.3% supporting him.
In the race to succeed Gov. Charlie Baker as the state's chief magistrate, Attorney General Maura Healey maintains a solid lead against her remaining Democratic rival and potential Republican general election challengers. Healey received 31% support in the survey, with Republican Geoff Diehl garnering 14%. Republican businessman Chris Doughty, a moderate GOP challenger to Diehl, received 3.3% support. Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, a Democrat, came in fourth with 1.2% support. Healey had 29.2% support in the February poll. Diehl and Doughty had 13.5% and 1.7% support respectively in February and Chang-Diaz registered at 1.9%.
Still, over half of those surveyed had no preference or were still making up their minds when it comes to the next governor.
"A good chunk of it is that it's March, the election's not until November. People start kind of thinking about that a little bit more over the summer," Eltringham said.
The poll found that the economy is the top topic on the mind of gubernatorial voters.
The poll also asked about the potential upcoming ballot question on whether ride-hail drivers and other gig economy workers should be exempted from labor laws so they can remain classified as independent contractors instead of full company employees, with all the wage and benefit protections that come with full employment.
Overall, 35.9% support the ballot measure and 34.7% disapprove.
Nearly half of Democrats, 42.6%, support the position of Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and other app-based companies to keep workers independent in exchange for limited new benefits. But 32.8% of Democrats surveyed side with organized labor against the ballot question.
