On February 27th SurveyUSA released a 600 sample poll taken in Missouri from February 15th through the 17th which shows that Matt “baby” Blunt received no sympathy bump from Missourians after he decided to become a lame duck and not run for reelection as governor. His overall numbers are similar to those in the January release. The margin of error is 4.1%.
The poll was sponsored by KCTV in Kansas City.
Do you approve or disapprove of the job Matt Blunt is doing as Governor?
All
42% – approve
54% – disapprove
4% – not sureDemocrats [40% of sample]
26% – approve
70% – disapprove
4% – not surerepublicans [26% of sample]
71% – approve
28% – disapprove
2% – not sureIndependents [28% of sample]
38% – approve
56% – disapprove
6% – not sure
Okay, the sympathy bump theory isn’t exactly correct. Blunt received such from Democrats, but managed to achieve the opposite among Independents.
Over the past several months SurveyUSA has been running the same series of questions about the most important issue facing the next president – in this instance, cross tabbed with “baby” Blunt’s approval numbers.
Top Issues for Next President (“baby” Blunt’s approval numbers within each group)
Economy [32% of sample]
43% – approve
54% – disapprove
2% – not sureHealth Care [19% of sample]
26% – approve
64% – disapprove
10% – not sureTerrorism [12% of sample]
73% – approve
26% – disapprove
1% – not sureImmigration [12% of sample]
56% – approve
44% – disapprove
0% – not sureIraq [8% of sample]
34% – approve
60% – disapprove
7% – not sureEducation [6% of sample]
27% – approve
73% – disapprove
0% – not sureEnvironment [5% of sample]
32% – approve
63% – disapprove
5% – not sureSocial Security [5% of sample]
33% – approve
67% – disapprove
0% – not sure
It’s interesting that Iraq as a ranked issue of importance to Missouri voters has slipped somewhat. Are there are other distractions in the news they choose to consume? Immigration and Terrorism have moved up somewhat. It would be interesting to see the party identification crosstabs with this issue. St. John McCain isn’t exactly in good stead with the republican base on this one.