Popular Governor

This is part of an ongoing series of posts deconstructing SurveyUSA's state-by-state polls of Presidential approval, Senator approval, and Governor approval. Today SUSA released their latest gubernatorial results.

Kathleen Sebelius is a popular lady. For a Democrat in Kansas, that's fairly remarkable, so understanding how her popularity plays out has some broader interest, especially as rumors of Senate runs or VP nominations surround her name.

SUSA finds her to be the 12th most popular governor, up from 15th last month. With 63% approval, her opponent in November will have a steep hill to climb, and her popularity keeps on rising, with net approval up 6% to 31%.

For the details on who likes her and who doesn't, click on through.

Approval among Republicans continues to fall as they remember there's a race coming. But with approval above 50%, and net approval of 11%, she'll be getting substantial support from the plurality of Kansans who think of themselves as Republicans. Approval among Republicans peaked two months ago at 62%, with 29% net approval.

Approval among Democrats ticked up slightly, but is basically holding at its high level. Those voters won't pick Barnett either way, so the real issue is what the Independents are doing.

And Independents love her almost as much as Democrats do. The one month jump in net approval from 12% to 47% is more than remarkable. It's worth noting that the percentage of people identifying themselves as Independents dropped from 30 to about 20% in April. That smaller sample will be more variable, but this shift is still well beyond the margin of error.

Last month, conservatives managed to cross into net disapproval of the governor, but that has narrowed to a mere 3%, a statistical tie among the people most likely to vote against her. Liberals approve of her by increasing amounts, up from 62% to 79%

But moderates, the people the entire election will be fought to convince, love the gov. Only a quarter disapprove, with 7 in 10 approving. That net approval has held steady since about September.

Six in ten pro-lifers like her as do 67% of pro-choice voters. Approval dipped in the west, ticked up in Wichita, and jumped in eastern Kansas.

More like this

Josh, who is this twit that posts on the Salina Journal blog as Kansas Meadowlark?
They post for the paper (as though they have some actual political common sense), but it's always something hateful, slanted and downright troll-like.
The latest was some shitty innuendo that Sebelius is RACIST! Looks kind of like the Papa Bear BillO of the plains. Man you gotta check this out and rip some ass.

Made me wonder if they are trying to score hits on their almost deserted blog?

Guess I'll go ahead and paste your article over there.

I think I stopped reading the SalJournal blogs. Nothing of interest came out of there. It was a nice idea for them, but so poorly run that it was painful to read.

KSMeadowlark at least writes substance, though frequently wrong substance.

No substance this time. Just innuendo.
I agree their site sucks.
That's why I wondered if they were trying to generate traffic by taking cheap shots.