A majority of Massachusetts voters disapprove of Gov. Deval Patrick's job performance and would prefer electing someone else in 2010, according to a Suffolk University poll conducted Nov. 4 through 8.

Fifty-one percent of voters disapprove of the job Patrick is doing in his first term, including majorities of Republicans and independents; 42 percent approve. Just 32 percent of voters think Patrick deserves to be re-elected, wile 55 percent say it is time to elect someone else. The margin of error is 4 percent.

Patrick, however, leads in a three-way race against independent Tim Cahill, the state's current treasurer, and either of two prospective Republican candidates. Against Republican businessman Christy Mihos, Patrick takes 36 percent of the vote while Cahill nabs 26 percent and Mihos comes in at 20 percent. Eighteen percent remain undecided.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley continues to dominate the Democratic primary race for the Senate seat held by Edward M. Kennedy until his death Aug. 25. She leads in nearly every category of voter, according to a Suffolk University/7 News poll of 600 registered voters conducted Nov. 4-8.

Coakley, the only statewide officeholder in the field of four candidates, has a plurality among male and female voters as well as across every region of the state. She also leads in every age group except the youngest (18- to 34-year-olds) and the oldest (75-plus), where she is tied with Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca. The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 4 percent.

Overall, the survey shows Coakley taking 44 percent of the primary vote, with Pagliuca second at 17 percent. They are followed by Rep. Michael E. Capuano at 16 percent and Alan Khazei, co-founder of the community service program City Year, at 3 percent.

Attorney General Martha Coakley starts the special election race to fill the Senate seat of the late Edward M. Kennedy with a significant advantage in voter familiarity, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey conducted Sept. 8.

Coakley, who declared her candidacy Sept. 3, registered support from 38 percent of likely Democratic voters -- a big lead over likely Democratic opponents Stephen F. Lynch and Michael E. Capuano, both congressmen from the Boston area. The survey found that Lynch would start with support from 11 percent of likely Democratic primary voters and Capuano, 7 percent.

The dean of the Massachusetts congressional delegation, 17-term Rep. Ed Markey, who is still mulling a run, had the backing of 10 percent of likely Democratic voters polled.

Rep. John F. Tierney, who is also looking at the campaign, came in at 3 percent.

Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick continues to lose support in Massachusetts, a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted Aug. 20 finds. Patrick now trails potential Republican challenger Christy Mihos.

In June, the same hypothetical matchup showed the governor with 41 percent to the businessman's 40 percent. The new poll showed Mihos holding steady, favored by 40 percent of those surveyed, but the incumbent falling to 35 percent.

In another hypthetical matchup, Patrick is in a dead heat with health care executive Charlie Baker, edging him by a statistically insignificant 40 percent to 39 percent, but in June that same matchup showed Baker trailing 41 percent to 36 percent.

This run-up year to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick's re-election campaign has been rough on the Democratic incumbent, as his struggles with the state's recession-plagued economy and other issues have hurt his standing with state votes. And the latest Boston Globe/University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll released Monday was just more bad news, as his job approval ratings hit a new low point.

Just 35 percent of the respondents said they approve of the job Patrick is doing, while 56 percent disapprove.

One of the major sources of Patrick's growing unpopularity, the Globe noted, is his perceived failure to reform state government, as he promised in his 2006 campaign. Sixty-two percent of respondents said Patrick has not brought reform to the state, while just 25 percent believe he has.

While Democrats have enjoyed two election cycles where they made huge strides in building their congressional majorities, we've been struck by the series of polls in the last few weeks that show a far grimmer outlook for their gubernatorial colleagues as we approach 2010.

Here's a summary of the last five governor polls we've posted here in Poll Tracker:

• New Hampshire: Three-term Democratic Gov. John Lynch was re-elected by landslides in his last two races and has enjoyed high approval ratings since his first term as New Hampshire governor, but economic and budget challenges have taken some of the luster off his current standing, according to a University of New Hampshire Granite State poll conducted June 24 - July 1.

First-term Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick is looking vulnerable in Massachusetts where, when matched against two Republicans in 2010, he is statistically tied with one and has a modest lead over the other, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted June 24.

Christy Mihos who ran against Patrick as an independent in 2006 and garnered only 7 percent of the vote, polls 41 percent to Patrick's 40 percent with 10 percent preferring some other candidate and 9 percent undecided. Mihos has hired veteran political consultant Dick Morris for his campaign, this time as a Republican.

Forty-seven percent of Massachusetts voters say they'd rather choose someone else other than Gov. Deval Patrick in 2010, with 34 percent saying he deserves re-election, according to a 7News/Suffolk University poll conducted March 17-20. Twenty percent were undecided.

Matched against fellow Democrat, State Treasurer Timothy Cahill, who has talked of running, Cahill leads 35 percent to 30 percent with 30 percent undecided. The margin of error is 4.9 points.

We've updated Ohio, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, North Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky, California and Florida in our round-up of state-by-state general election match-ups between Barack Obama and John McCain. We are also putting three states into different categories. Indiana and North Carolina move from "Republican Favored" to "Leans Republican." And Poll Tracker sheepishly admits it got out of synch with our race ratings team, and is moving Pennsylvania from "Democrat Favored" to "Leans Democratic."

Visit our Presidential election maps which give you four different ways to look at the race, including one that lets you build your own electoral scenario.

Today we add Massachusetts to our round-up.

• Massachusetts: Democratic Sen. John Kerry leads Jeff Beatty, whose biography describes him as a Special Forces veteran, FBI special agent and CIA operations officer, by 56 percent to 29 percent in a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted August 5. Kerry is viewed favorably by 59 percent of voters while Beatty's name recognition problem is underlined by the fact that 41 percent answer "not sure" on this question. CQ Politics rates this race "Safe Democrat."