John Connolly Poll Shows Him Starting With A Lead

John Connolly’s campaign conducted a poll that shows him with a 12-point lead over Marty Walsh at the start of the six-week final race for mayor of Boston.

Connolly was the choice of 44 percent of likely voters, with 32 percent planning to vote for Walsh and 22 percent undecided, according to results obtained by Boston magazine. Two percent refused to answer.

The results are based on 800 completed phone surveys conducted over the weekend and beginning of this week, according to a source close to the Connolly campaign. The poll was conducted by Washington-based Anderson Robbins to help form strategy and test messaging for the campaign after the preliminary election.

Kate Norton, of Walsh’s campaign, dismisses the Connolly poll. “The first sign of fear from a campaign is when they start releasing internal polls,” she said in a statement. “His internal polls were wrong in the primary, and they are going to be proven wrong in the final.”

The results are very similar to head-to-head results in a Suffolk University/Boston Herald poll conducted a week before the September 24 preliminary election. That poll had Connolly with 44 percent and Walsh with 29 percent if the final election was between those two candidates.

If both polls are accurate, it suggests little citywide gain for Walsh over the past two weeks, despite a substantial advertising campaign, followed by media coverage of his first-place preliminary finish. However, the race clearly remains up for grabs as the bulk of voters begin focusing on the race.