Independents in Kentucky

Independents in Kentucky are apparently a discontented lot.

On our recent poll they had a negative opinion of almost every politician in the state across party lines- Barack Obama, Steve Beshear, Mitch McConnell, Jim Bunning, Ben Chandler, Dan Mongiardo, and David Williams all had more independents say they disapproved of their job performance or had an unfavorable opinion about them than had anything positive to say.

They were split equally on Crit Luallen and had a favorable opinion just of Trey Grayson and Jack Conway. 46% said they viewed Grayson positively with 20% holding a negative perception and for Conway the spread was 35/28.

One thing I found interesting about the poll though is that Kentucky actually seems to have fewer independent voters to begin with than other states. Just 11% of our respondents didn't self identify with either the Democratic or Republican Party and when I crosschecked that with the exit poll from last year it was just 15%, barely half of the 29% of voters nationally last year who described themselves as independents.

I guess it's not a surprise that in a state where the vast majority of voters do have a party, the ones who don't are a little skeptical of politicians in general.