Gubernatorial Approval Ratings

For most of last year Bev Perdue was one of the most unpopular Governors in the country, but that's no longer the case. It's not that the voters have warmed up to her- her 30% approval rating is still very poor- but the rest of the Governors have caught up to her in unpopularity.

Our last North Carolina poll found 47% of voters in the state disapproving of Perdue. The average disapproval on 21 Governors we've polled over the last six months is 45%. So there's really not much difference between her unpopularity and that of the average Governor anymore.

There's no doubt it's a tough time to be a Governor. The average approval spread on the ones we've looked at lately is 37/45. Here are some notes on those numbers:

-It's better to be a small state Governor. The three we've found over 50 recently are Sean Parnell in Alaska, Mike Beebe in Arkansas, and Mike Rounds in South Dakota.

-It's really tough to be a big state Governor. Out of the 11 Governors we've looked at in states that have 10 or more electoral votes only Tim Kaine at 46% while he was still in office and Jay Nixon at 42% have positive approval ratings. 7 of the 11 have disapproval numbers over 50.

-The five least popular Governors we've tested are Bill Richardson, Deval Patrick, Jim Doyle, John Baldacci, and Jon Corzine while he was still in office. The only one of those folks running this year is Patrick and I have a really hard time seeing him getting reelected even with three serious candidates in the race.

Here's the full data by approval rating:

Governor	Approval Rating
Mike Beebe (D-Arkansas)	59/22
Sean Parnell (R-Alaska)	58/19
Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota)	55/32
Jodi Rell (R-Connecticut)	49/39
Tim Kaine (D-Virginia)	46/39
Jay Nixon (D-Missouri)	42/25
Jack Markell (D-Delaware)	40/31
Bill Ritter (D-Colorado)	38/50
Steve Beshear (D-Kentucky)	36/39
Mark Sanford (R-South Carolina)	36/51
Charlie Crist (R-Florida)	35/51
Jon Corzine (D-New Jersey)	34/57
Rick Perry (R-Texas)	33/50
Bev Perdue (D-North Carolina)	30/47
Sonny Perdue (R-Georgia)	29/52
Jim Doyle (D-Wisconsin)	29/57
Bill Richardson (D-New Mexico)	28/63
Jan Brewer (R-Arizona)	26/43
Pat Quinn (D-Illinois)	25/55
John Baldacci (D-Maine)	25/57
Deval Patrick (D-Massachusetts)	22/59