A Suffolk University poll in mid-April showed that 70 percent of Massachusetts voters approved of Baker. Those figures, the envy of virtually any public official, weren’t an anomaly, as other surveys have also shown the governor flying high. What’s more, Baker’s high personal ratings (74 percent of Suffolk respondents said they viewed him favorably) made him more popular than the state’s highest-profile Democrat, progressive star Elizabeth Warren.

Virtually the only other governors to notch ratings this high in recent years have been Democrats in deep-blue states or Republicans in deep-red states. Recent polling in conservative Utah and Mississippi, for example, show those governors to be roughly as popular as Baker. But given that Democrats outnumber Republicans around 3-to-1 in Massachusetts, the comparison hardly seems valid.

Observers of all stripes point to the same few things explaining Baker’s early success. Baker has demonstrated the managerial skills he promised in his 2014 campaign, is building good working relationships with Democrats, and is adeptly tackling mundane but thorny issues that other governors may not have had the patience for.