Poll: Scott Brown enjoying higher favorables in Mass. than Obama, Kerry

Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) enjoys high favorability ratings after almost five full months in office, a new poll found Monday.

The freshman GOP senator, who won the special election in January to fill the vacant seat of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D), is riding a wave of approval in the state, driven by support from Republicans and independents.

Fifty-five percent of the state’s voters have a favorable opinion of Brown, while 18 percent have an unfavorable rating, according to a Boston Globe poll released Monday. Thirteen percent had a “neutral” opinion of the senator, while 14 percent didn’t know.

Brown enjoys a 79-3 favorable-to-unfavorable rating among Republicans, the Globe reported, and a 55-11 rating among independents.

Brown will need these numbers to hold over the next two years if he wants to win reelection in 2012, when he’ll have to run for his own full six-year term.

The Republican senator has sought to strike a centrist pose during his first few months in the Senate, joining with Democrats on several key votes, such as several pushes to extend unemployment benefits and on Wall Street reform. (Brown has threatened to oppose the final version of the financial overhaul due to changes made in conference.)

But in the meantime, Brown’s rating also eclipses the favorability ratings of President Barack Obama and Brown’s state colleague, Sen. John Kerry (D).

Kerry has a 52-37 favorability rating, while Obama has a 54-41 rating.

The poll, conducted by the University of New Hampshire’s Survey Center from June 17-23, has a 4.2 percent margin of error.