Favorability numbers for Attorney General Martha Coakley have increased by 26 points since she ran in the special U.S. Senate election in Jan. 2010, according to a new poll. Voters returned her to the attorney general's office the following November.

"Martha Coakley could be headed for redemption in 2014," Public Policy Polling (PPP), a Democratic polling firm, said in a write-up of its results. "A Suffolk poll last month found she would be the top choice of Democratic voters in the state to be their candidate for Governor next year."

The PPP poll also found that Coakley leads in a hypothetical face-off with Charlie Baker, the GOP nominee for governor in 2010, by a 49 to 29 margin.

The firm acknowledged it had conducted a tracking poll for Coakley in her 2010 reelection campaign, but added "this poll was not paid for or authorized by any campaign or political organization."

The poll of 936 Bay State voters, conducted between March 16 and 18, has a margin of error of 3.2 percent.

The poll also found that voters approve of a ballot initiative legalizing medical marijuana 53 percent to 35 percent. A separate initiative attempting to legalize assisted suicide divides voters, with 43 percent in support and 37 percent against.

"Both of those things break out as generational issues with seniors opposed to them but every age bracket under 65 in support," the write-up of the results says.