BOSTON, MA – JANUARY 31: Attorney General Maura Healey announces that her office is taking action challenging President Trump’s Executive Order on Immigration in Boston on Jan. 31, 2017. (Photo by Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
With seven months before voters go to the polls, Attorney General Maura Healey and former Rep. Geoff Diehl hold significant advantages with voters in their parties, and Healey, a Democrat, is the clear front-runner to succeed Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, though more than half the electorate has yet to choose a candidate, according to a new poll.
Healey led the field of Democrats and Republicans in the race for governor with 29.2% support, according to a new poll commissioned by the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, followed by Diehl, a former Republican state lawmaker, with 13.5%.
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More than 52% of voters surveyed, however, said they did not know who they would vote for if the election were held today.
The poll also attempted to gauge support for a question moving toward the ballot in November that would impose a surtax of 4% on all earned household income above $1 million. The MassFiscal poll found that 51.6% of voters oppose the proposed ballot question, which is an outlier from other polls that found significant support for the wealth tax. The poll did not describe the income surtax in detail, but rather told respondents it would "raise the income tax on some high-income earners and middle-class small businesses."
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Healey polled strongest among Democrats, with 46% support compared to 1.9% for Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz and 1.9% for Harvard professor Danielle Allen, who announced Tuesday she was dropping out of the race.
Among Republicans, Diehl had 27.1% support to 12.3% for Healey, while the other Republican in the race, Wrentham businessman Chris Doughty, had just 2.5% support within his own party and 1.7% overall.
Unenrolled voters, who make up the largest voting bloc in Massachusetts and were critical to Baker's success in the past two gubernatorial elections, also broke for Healey, with 23% saying they would support the attorney general compared to 16.3% for Diehl.
