Massachusetts residents souring on Charlie Baker’s handling of COVID-19 response
But most still approve.
Gov. Charlie Baker has begun routinely leading off his semi-regular COVID-19 press conferences by reciting statistics illustrating how well the vaccine rollout in Massachusetts is faring compared to other states.
“We’re number one per-capita in the country, among the 25 states that have more than 5 million residents, for both first dose percentage of the population and for total doses administered,” he said last week. “And we’re number three in the percentage of our Black residents with at least one dose. We’ve first-dosed 74 percent of our individuals that are over the age of 75, and almost half of those over the age of 65 have received at least one dose as well.”
However, after the state’s deliberately targeted rollout ran into accessibility issues as it expanded to broader populations, Bay Staters are apparently growing less impressed.
According to a survey released Friday by researchers at Northeastern, Harvard, Rutgers, and Northwestern universities, Baker has seen a gradual decline in residents’ perceptions of his handling of the COVID-19 response — from a “remarkably high” 80 percent approval last April to 59 percent as of March 1.
While a majority of residents still view his response to the pandemic favorably, approval of Baker’s handling of the crisis dropped noticeably from mid-January to March — despite the dramatic decline in the state’s COVID-19 rates over that same time.
It’s somewhat unfamiliar ground for the moderate Republican governor, who has enjoyed remarkably high approval ratings throughout his term and a half leading the Democrat-heavy state (in fact, those favorable ratings have been fueled by Democratic voters).
David Lazer, a Northeastern University professor who worked on the new report, blamed the decline on the state’s “bumpy” vaccine rollout, which was hampered by a difficult online signup process (last week, the state launched a vaccine preregistration system).
“I think he’s taken a hit as a result,” Lazer told The Boston Globe.
Another poll released Friday by UMass Amherst similarly found that approval of Baker’s handling had dropped in recent months, from 79 percent of residents who thought he had done “somewhat” or “very” well in October to 60 percent who said the same in early March. Over the same time, the number of residents who said Baker had done “not too well” or “not well at all” increased from 21 percent to 37 percent.
Baker isn’t alone. According to the report by Northeastern, Harvard, Rutgers, and Northwestern, the trajectory of his pandemic response’s approval rating “roughly parallels the decline of other governors’ approval.” However, most governors saw the bottom drop further — to an average of 46 percent by February. In other words, Baker simply had a higher approval rate to being with.
And for the most part, that remains true. A MassINC poll released in late-February found that 74 percent of Massachusetts residents approve of the overall job Baker has done as governor.
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