As if it was possible for anyone to be less popular than President Bush, a new Chicago Tribune poll puts Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s popularity at 13%.
The ratings are the lowest ever recorded for an elected politician in almost three decades of Tribune polls.
Blagojevich has a different opinion, considering himself a "great governor" who has "more to do." But the overwhelming majority of voters asked responded with a resounding "no" when asked if Blago should run again.
Now, the Chicago Tribune is a Republican newspaper. The publisher freely admits that. But any way you slice it, this is bad news for Blago.
Overall, the survey of 500 registered likely voters conducted at the end of last week showed a mere 10 percent said they wanted Blagojevich re-elected in 2010, while three-fourths sahe survey also showed only 13 percent approved of Blagojevich’s job performance, while 71 percent disapproved. Blagojevich’s job approval rate is 5 percentage points lower than that of President George W. Bush, though the president’s disapproval rating is slightly higher.
The survey has an error margin of 4.4 percentage points.id they didn’t want him back for a third term.
On corruption, Blago’s merit almost disappears with that margin of error:
Only 8 percent of the state’s voters believe Blagojevich has lived up to his promise to end corruption in government—the hallmark of his initial election as governor in 2002 after the tenure of scandal-tarred Republican Gov. George Ryan. Three out of four Illinois voters said Blagojevich failed to keep his promise to end corruption in state hiring, contracts and appointments to state boards and commissions.
The poll found voter disapproval of Blagojevich to be even deeper than what Ryan faced during his final weeks in office as investigations swirled around him. In October 2002, a Tribune poll found 23 percent of voters approved of the job Ryan was doing as governor, while 61 percent disapproved. Ryan was convicted on federal corruption charges and is in prison.
Time for Rod to move back to Chicago.
Oh, wait. He never really went to Springfield, did he?
