Seventy percent (70%) of Massachusetts voters approve so far of new Republican Senator Scott Brown’s job performance, including 30% who Strongly Approve.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state finds only 26% who disapprove of the job he is doing, with 11% who Strongly Disapprove.

Brown won an upset victory in a special January 19 election to fill the Senate seat held for 47 years by the late Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy. He is the first Republican Massachusetts has sent to the Senate since 1972.

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of Massachusetts voters say the Kennedy dynasty is now over in the state. Twenty-one percent (21%) disagree, and another 20% are not sure.

Yet while 72% of both Republicans and voters not affiliated with either major party say the Kennedy era has passed, Democrats are almost evenly divided on the question.

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Male voters give Brown more favorable marks than female voters. Voters over 50 are more likely to strongly approve of the job he is doing than those who are younger.

Even most Democrats (57%) at least somewhat approve of the job the new senator is doing. But Republicans and unaffiliated voters are much more likely to Strongly Approve of Brown’s job performance.

In Massachusetts, support for the health care plan now working its way through Congress is slightly stronger than it is nationally. Forty-six percent (46%) in the state favor the plan, while 52% oppose it. Those findings include 31% who Strongly Favor it and 40% who Strongly Oppose it.

Since Brown promised specifically if elected to vote against the president’s health care plan, it’s not surprising to find that just 35% of those who Strongly Favor the plan approve of the new senator’s performance to date. However, 96% of those who Strongly Oppose the plan approve of how Brown is doing.

Thirty-eight percent (38%) of Massachusetts voters think the media is paying too much attention to Brown, while just six percent (6%) think he’s not getting enough media attention. Nearly one-out-of-two-voters (49%) in the state, though, say the coverage is about right.

Recent coverage has focused on Brown’s decision to be one of a handful of Senate Republicans who at least initially have supported a jobs-creation plan proposed by the president and congressional Democrats. Because Brown’s victory has been attributed in part to the so-called Tea Party backlash against the president’s big government agenda, he has been criticized by conservatives for supporting Obama’s jobs plan.

Thirty-six percent (36%) of Massachusetts voters have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party movement, while 41% view it unfavorably. Only 13% of voters in the state consider themselves a part of that movement.

Fifty-three percent (53%) of voters in Massachusetts think it would be better for the country if most congressional incumbents were defeated in November. Twenty-five percent (25%) disagree.

Voters are evenly divided over whether their own local representative in Congress deserves to be reelected: 38% say yes, and the identical number (38%) say no.

Sixty-five percent (65%) of voters nationwide think politics in Washington, D.C. will become more partisan over the next year. That’s a 13-point jump from the 52% who felt that way just after President Obama’s State of the Union speech in which he talked about trying to work with Republicans.

Rasmussen Reports will release new data tomorrow on this governor’s race in the Bay State.

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