This morning, Dave Weigel tweeted “Unpopular/overreaching GOP governors in OH, WI, FL — good or bad for GOP’s prez ticket?”. That really got me thinking about the upcoming general elections.
- The first actual poll of Ohio Governor John Kasich was released this morning. In it they find his approval rating at a dismal 40%, with a 47% disapproval. That is lower than his three predecessors at the same point in their tenure.
- In Florida, Rick Scott’s approval rating was at 35% last month (the last available data).
- Then we hit Wisconsin and the infamous Scott Walker. His approval rating is the highest of the three, at 43%, even though that was a poll from Rasmussen.
But in all three of these states, their newly elected governors are behind President Obama in approval ratings, even in their own states:
- Ohio gives Obama a 48% approval rating (+8 over Kasich).
- Wisconsin gives Obama a 48% approval rating (+5 over Walker).
- Florida gives Obama a 46% approval rating (+11 over Scott).
Another thing all three of these states share in common, besides the fact that they approve of the President more than their newly-elected Republican governors – they are all swing states in the 2012 election. So to answer Weigel’s question, I would have to say that is a big yes. In only two months, states that decided on Republican leadership, after voting for Obama in 2008, have already turned highly sour on their new leadership.
It also means that we can expect to see Republican presidential candidates distance themselves from the actions being taken by this disastrous three. We’ve already seen the start of that with Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and his distancing himself from their own union-busting bill.