U.S. Sen. John Kerry's sizable lead over Republican challenger Jeff Beatty hasn't slipped much in the last month, according to a poll released Thursday.

[img_assist|nid=30|title=Sen. John Kerry (D-Boston)|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=123|height=180]Kerry (D-Boston) leads Beatty (Harwich) by 27 points, 56 percent to 29 percent, in the new Rasmussen poll. Last month, Kerry had a slightly larger 31-point lead over his Republican challenger, 58 percent to 27 percent.

Eight-five percent of Democrats and 14 percent of Republicans support Kerry. Beatty receives support from 74 percent of Republicans and 7 percent of Democrats.

Most notably, the race for unenrolled voters in the Bay State, of which there are many, remains close. Kerry leads that category 40 percent to 36 percent.

While a majority of respondents viewed Kerry favorably, respondents gave his job performance a mixed review. Kerry was viewed favorably by 59 percent of respondents while 38 percent viewed him unfavorably. Almost half of the respondents - 49 percent - viewed the former presidential nominee as an average Democratic senator. Twenty-three percent said he is a top leader in party while 22 percent said he is an embarrassment to the party.

Beatty's favorability and unfavorability ratings are almost equal while the majority of voters (41 percent) have no opinion of him. Thirty percent of respondents had a favorable opinion of Beatty, while 29 percent had an unfavorable one.

Kerry's primary challenger, Ed O'Reilly, was not included in the poll.

The poll surveyed 500 likely voters and had a margin of error of 4.5 percent.