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Governor Flatline

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Illinois
Polls

* The Tribune has released its poll results for Gov. Pat Quinn’s job approval rating. Quinn’s rating is as dismal as always: 30 percent approve and 54 percent disapprove. TPM poll tracker has Quinn’s average job approval rating at 31.9 percent over the past 2 years, while his average disapproval rating is 54 percent.

The Tribune’s own poll showed Quinn at 28 percent approval in September of 2010, not long before he beat Bill Brady in the governor’s race.

* Tribune poll by region…

For whatever reason, Downstate isn’t included in the graphic, but Quinn’s approval rating there is just 18 percent, while 65 percent disapprove.

* More…

The poll of 600 registered voters, which has an error margin of 4 percentage points, was conducted Feb. 2-6. The interviews began a day after Quinn delivered an optimistic State of the State speech to lawmakers in Springfield in which he declared that after three years of his leadership, “Illinois is back on course. Illinois is moving forward. And Illinois is a place that we can be proud to claim as our own.”

That’s not the view many Illinoisans hold about the state’s economy. About three-quarters of Illinois voters said they failed to see an improvement in Illinois’ economy or thought that it is getting worse. Of that group, 88 percent disapproved of Quinn. […]

The governor scores best within his own party, though the poll found fewer than half of those who identified themselves as Democrats approve of Quinn’s job performance — 44 percent. But 61 percent of independent voters, always a key political demographic in statewide elections, expressed disapproval with his handling of the job.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 9:23 am

Comments

Don’t know why the Democrats work so hard at electing someone and then after the election disapprove of him.

Comment by Mike an Ike Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 9:30 am
Making the pies proportional to the voting base would make the graphic even better.

Comment by PublicServant Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 9:42 am
@ Mike–

Because the alternative was so much worse.

Comment by Ray del Camino Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 9:45 am
I’m Lisa Madigan, and I approved this message.

Comment by too obvious Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 9:47 am
“Don’t know why the Democrats work so hard at electing someone and then after the election disapprove of him.”

Nothing but extremism for the alternative.

Comment by Ratman Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 9:48 am
===and then after the election disapprove of him.===

Um, they disapproved of him before election day as well.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 9:50 am
–The Tribune’s own poll showed Quinn at 28 percent approval in September of 2010, not long before he beat Bill Brady in the governor’s race.–

Geez, at 31% it would have been a landslide.

That’s like the two campers who are surprised by a bear. One of them starts to run; the other yells, “what are you doing, you can’t outrun a bear?”

The runner says, “I don’t have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you.”

Comment by wordslinger Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 9:50 am
I think Republican candidates for the legislature can run against Quinn and the Democratic leaders effectively this fall. I think they don’t even have to mention their actual opponents.

Comment by Cassiopeia Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 9:56 am
This poll is more grist for the dump-Quinn mill. Unless Democrats calculate that we’d be better off with divided government to make Republicans act responsibly, we ought to replace Quinn in the 2014 primary to nominate someone with a better chance of winning.

Comment by reformer Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 9:58 am
Indeed - he is elected with a significant disapproval rating? Was Brady THAT evil?

I lay odds he is re-elected.

Comment by dupage dan Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 9:59 am
@Cassie

I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Republicans in Illinois especially the legislature aren’t to great at actually winning elections. Press conferences, whining about not winning elections, hand wringing, that’s where the ILGOP shines.

Comment by Farker Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 10:02 am
How many people cast a vote for Quinn because they couldn’t fathom casting a vote for Brady? There was no groundswell of support for Quinn. If there was a reasonable candidate on the Republican side, we’d be discussing our Republican governor today.

Comment by Aldyth Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 10:21 am
I suppose there might be some concern on the part of Democrats that he would be a drag on Democratic candidates in iffy legislative districts (probably not too many of those in our gerrymandered state) this fall. The President’s presence on the ticket could mitigate some of that. But just in case–I predict nothing of significance happens this spring in the Legislature despite a lot of talk about fixing this and that. A short session and an early departure for the campaign trails.

Comment by Cassandra Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 10:59 am
Reality: Tribune more unpopular than ever.

From Rueters:
For the 26 weeks ending March 30, 2008, the Tribune reported daily circulation (Monday - Friday) of 541,663…

From Tribune (Nov 2011):
The Tribune’s average daily circulation through September was 425,370, down from 437,205 in the March report, a 2.7 percent decline.

Comment by M O'Malley Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 11:15 am
It is obscene Quinn won / Brady couldn’t beat Quinn.

Let’s hope he makes some wise decisions in this budget, or a lot more people than necessary will be hurt.

I say that knowing full well this budget will bring a great deal pain no matter who is in office. This is about minimizing the pain and setting sound priorities.

Let’s hope PQ surprises and impresses us in 2 weeks.

Comment by Shock & Awww(e) Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 11:51 am
This is really a “dump Brady and the entire GOP state leadership” message. They remain clueless, and outright dishonest with their own party constituents.

Comment by mark walker Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 11:58 am
I don’t know how you can disapprove of the way Quinn does the job of Governor. He doesn’t.

Comment by Excessively Rabid Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 12:02 pm
Almost any canidate could have beaten Quinn,the GOP of course took the farthest right canidate they could get. A recipe on how to blow an election. When will they learn?

Comment by mokenavince Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 12:13 pm
Mark
If the next governor were a Republican, who had to balance the budget and pay overdue bills while allowing most of the income tax hike to expire, do you think we’d get a more honest appraisal from our GOP friends about what needs to be done?

Comment by reformer Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 12:25 pm
Gov. Toast! Insert Gov. Lisa Madigan, or any other VIABLE candidate. 16th floor has been a staff revolving door so there is no accountability and newbies from college or law school have no idea of the process. Quinn, what are you thinking?

Comment by Sinister Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 12:43 pm
Yeah, and LM will get right in there, roll up her sleeves, and solve the whole shebang. Or not. Really, why change much - where’s the impetus to do anything substantive when there is no hue and cry?

Comment by dupage dan Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 1:11 pm
Kasich of Ohio (33 approval/53 disapproval) and Walker of Wisconsin (51 approval/46 disapproval) feel very popular today!

Comment by southwest Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 1:20 pm
- M O’Malley @ 11:15 am:- The Tribs circulation would drop quite a bit further if it wasn’t a good source of coupons for the economy driven coupon rage that is going on. The trib, as is evidenced in this article, doesn’t believe any one outside of Chicago or the collar counties is important. Nor only are our opinions not important, we are also not worthy of a complete paper. It is general knowledge out here that the tribs sent out here for sale off the rack do not contain the coupons that the papers in the city contain. So folks subscribe to the trib to get the full package of coupons. Many carry several subscriptions because the coupons can be bundled for more savings. So a lot of downstate folks look at the trib the same way we used to look at Playboy. It ain’t the articles, it’s the stuff in the middle.

Comment by Irish Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 1:25 pm
That’s a bit lower but not completely out of line with the results of the Simon Institute Poll released in October, which had a sample size of 1000.

That poll had Quinn at 36-56.

I’m not sure that doing the poll right after the State of the State was such a bright idea.

People tend to be heavily influenced in their poll responses based on what they read in the paper or saw on the news that day.

The media doesn’t tell people what to think, only what to think about.

And the press coverage following the SOTS basically made the argument that Quinn had taken his eye of the budget.

As Rich has pointed out, that was an extremely biased and unfounded charge.

Not mentioned by the Tribune is their poll also came on the tail of major news coverage of projected budget deficits.

A better poll would come a week or to after the budget address when the governor and everybody else has weighed in on our budget choices and the public has had a chance to digest them.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 2:13 pm
Even more than I was a year ago, I am still astounded that 30 percent approve of Quinn’s performance. I wonder who those people are, because even die-hard Democrats all think he is terrible as far as I can tell.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Feb 10, 12 @ 2:37 pm