Mitt's stock is sky-high

Utahns have a sky-high opinion of Mitt Romney right now, but they probably won't get the chance to elect him to political office.

A Boston newspaper poll has Romney, a Republican, leading all five Democrats running for governor of Massachusetts, the state in which the outgoing Salt Lake Olympics boss has said he's most likely to seek election.

And in a new Deseret News/KSL-TV poll of 600 Utahns conducted this week, results indicate more than 87 percent of respondents gave Romney a favorable rating. His unfavorable rating was a mere 4 percent.

"The guy looks like he walks on water," pollster Dan Jones said.

The numbers published in Wednesday's Boston Herald aren't nearly that lofty but do elevate him above every Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate, including Gov. Jane M. Swift, a Republican incumbent against whom Romney said he would not run.

The Boston poll showed 57 percent of registered voters gave the soon-to-be-former Salt Lake Organizing Committee president a favorable rating, compared with 27 percent for Swift. Swift's unfavorable rating was 53 percent, compared with Romney's 8 percent.

Jones said a candidate needs a 3-to-1 ratio of favorable to unfavorable to be viable, which Romney easily has.

"That's very good, especially for a Republican. That's a Democratic state," he said.

The poll also showed him outpacing the Democrats, while Swift lagged behind top contenders.

Romney was favored over Massachusetts state Treasurer Shannon P. O'Brien by 6 points, 38 percent to 32 percent, and over former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich by 9 points, 40 percent to 31 percent. Romney held double-digit leads over the other candidates.

"He is going to Massachusetts, in my opinion," Jones said, citing two reasons Romney would choose that state over Utah.

First, he ran a credible campaign against Sen. Ted Kennedy in 1994. Second, the Eastern state offers more electoral votes and a larger media market should he decide to run for president.

Romney said Sunday during a 2002 Winter Games wrap-up news conference that his longtime home state was the "most likely place" in which he would run for office. He did not want to discuss the Boston Herald poll Wednesday, spokeswoman Caroline Shaw said.