BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick won a second term Tuesday with the help of some of the same political advisers who hope to do the same in two years for his friend President Barack Obama.

With 67 percent of state’s precincts reporting, the Democrat had 49 percent compared with Republican challenger Charles Baker’s 41 percent. Independent candidate Timothy Cahill was in third place with 8 percent, while Green-Rainbow Party candidate Jill Stein was a distant fourth.

Patrick benefited from the unusual four-way race, especially with Cahill’s candidacy. A two-term state treasurer who quit the Democratic Party to run as an independent, Cahill sought the support of the same fiscally conservative voters as Baker, a former state official who spent the past decade turning around Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

The Republican Governors Association, seeking a trophy win by knocking off the president’s fellow Chicagoan and Harvard Law alumnus, spent millions on anti-Patrick and anti-Cahill ads.

Patrick ran a defiant campaign, proud of his accomplishments and unwilling to yield to his critics.

Baker lambasted him for eight tax hikes — including a 25-percent increase in the state sales tax — and an unwillingness to explain how he plans to close a projected $2 billion deficit for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Patrick countered by citing investments in health care, public education and emerging industries such as clean energy and life sciences.

“If you believe that government is about people, not abstract policy, that government is about neighbors, not numbers, this is your team,” the governor told an audience over the weekend.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.