A new poll shows U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Boston) has a substantial lead in his race for re-election and Gov. Deval Patrick's (D-Milton) job approval rating on a minor upswing.
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The poll, conducted by Rasmussen Reports, shows Kerry leading Republican challenger Jeff Beatty 58 percent to 27 percent. Last month, Kerry led Beatty 63 percent to 25 percent. At the time that poll was taken, however, Jim Ogonowski appeared to be the front runner for the GOP nomination in the race.

The percentage of the respondents that have a favorable view of Kerry jumped from 54 percent at the end of May to 60 percent at the end of June. Twenty-five percent of respondents view Beatty favorably, but 44 percent of respondents had no impression of the candidate.
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Rasmussen has given Kerry a 94 percent chance of winning re-election in the fall.

Forty percent of respondents said Patrick is doing an "excellent" or "good" job as governor. That number is up from 36 percent last month. Thirty-eight percent of respondents, a plurality in the survey, rated his performance as "fair." Twenty-one percent of respondents rated his performance as "poor," which is down from 23 percent last month.

 There was a 4.5 percent margin of error in the poll.