The news, in brief: Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker is popular.
Very, very popular.
Still.
A new survey from Morning Consult finds Baker, a Republican more than a year and eight months into his first term, has maintained a 70 percent approval rating among voters.
And while Baker is no longer the nation’s most popular governor (that honor now goes to Dennis Daugaard of South Dakota), the Swampscott resident still ranks in the top three, the survey found.
Eighteen percent of the 1,296 Bay State voters polled over the last four months disapproved Baker’s job performance, while 11 percent did not know or had no opinion.
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A Morning Consult survey from January through early May found Baker was the nation’s most popular governor with 72 percent of voters approving of the job he was doing and 16 percent disapproving.
The newest online survey, conducted from May through earlier this month, carries a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
Baker is expected to run for re-election in 2018. He was first elected in 2014, winning by a slim margin over Democrat Martha Coakley. Baker lost his first bid for the corner office in 2010 to then-governor Deval Patrick.
Since taking office in January of 2015, he has largely escaped criticism from the Democrats who control most constitutional offices, both chambers of the Legislature, both US Senate seats, and all nine seats in the US House of Representatives.
Joshua Miller can be reached at joshua.miller@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jm_bos and subscribe to his weekday e-mail update on politics at bostonglobe.com/politicalhappyhour