[Vision2020] Approval Rating for Palin Tumbles Among Alaskans

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (October 1, 2008) Anchorage Daily News at:

http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/542179.html
 
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Approval rating for Palin tumbles among Alaskans
68 PERCENT: Latest poll shows percentage drop from the 80s.

 
Ask a governor if she'd be happy with a 68 percent approval rating and 
she'd probably laugh at the question. It usually doesn't get much better 
than that.

For Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, though, that represents a hefty drop.

Since John McCain tapped the first-term governor to be his vice-
presidential running mate, Palin's sky-high home-state approval ratings 
have come down to Earth.

Above 80 percent approval for parts of her term -- she was at 82 percent 
in a key local poll twice this year -- Palin's popularity has swooned as 
new information about the local abuse-of-power investigation known as 
Troopergate has trickled out, and as national and local media pick over 
her track record as a governor and small-town mayor.

Palin still has overwhelming support among Alaska Republicans. But many 
Democrats and independents, who gave her positive marks just a month ago, 
have changed their views.

"My problem is not with Sarah Palin the governor," said Ron Zandman-Zeman, 
60, a recently retired school teacher from Anchorage. "She was doing the 
job she was elected to do. I don't think she can do the job she wants to 
be elected to do. And that's why I'm here."

"Here" was a rally in a downtown Anchorage park last weekend, where 
several hundred demonstrators gathered under a brilliant blue sky to 
protest Palin and her attorney general, mostly for their handling of the 
Troopergate controversy.

Until this summer, there were plenty of Alaskans who'd supported or been 
neutral toward their governor. Palin built a reservoir of goodwill during 
a handful of key issues, including prodding the state's oil industry to 
cough up more of its profits, which fund the vast majority of state 
operations.

After McCain shocked the political world by picking Palin, the rest of the 
country experienced a flash of infatuation with the charming, gutsy 
governor. But some Alaskans turned against what they saw as her newly 
aggressive, mean-spirited demeanor.

At the studio of KENI in Anchorage, Andrew Halcro has become a focal point 
for anti-Palin advocates. Halcro is a former state legislator who was 
beaten by Palin in the 2006 gubernatorial election. (Running as an 
independent, Halcro finished third behind Palin and former Gov. Tony 
Knowles, a Democrat).

Palin had done a good job of governing from the center, he said. But her 
recent mocking of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, for 
example, is a surprise to many Alaskans.

"I see a real change in the callers," he said. "People are seeing Gov. 
Palin in a different light."

While many demonstrators objected to Palin on partisan or ideological 
grounds, two issues that clearly rankled Alaskans had nothing to do with 
party loyalty: openness and independence.

Ivan Moore, a local pollster, recently found that Palin's support had 
slipped to 68 percent. The poll was conducted from Sept. 20 to 22 among 
500 likely Alaska voters and has a margin of error of 4.4 percent.

Inside those numbers was a dramatic drop in support from Democrats and 
independents, although support from Republicans remained strong at 93 
percent. Among Democrats, her approval rating dropped from 60 percent to 
36 percent, a 24-point drop. Among independents, it fell from 82 percent 
to 64 percent, an 18-point drop.

Moore said those numbers were likely driven by the harsher tone Palin has 
adopted on the national campaign trail, as well as the fallout from 
Troopergate, which involves the firing of the state's public safety 
commissioner.

In addition, fiercely independent Alaskans resent moves by the McCain 
campaign to control what they see as purely state matters.

Sondra Tompkins, a reliably Republican voter, found herself speaking out 
at the rally -- upset, she said, because of Palin's handling of the 
trooper issue and the example it sets for children in the state.

"They're listening, they're watching, and they're asking questions," 
Tompkins called out to the crowd. "Do we tell them it's OK not to tell the 
truth? Do we tell them it's OK to bend the truth? Do we tell them it's OK 
to distort the truth if you have a gaggle of lawyers to defend you?

"It's not OK, and I think Alaskans have had enough."

Brad Coker, managing director of Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc., said 
an approval rating in the 60s for a governor is good. His recent polling 
in six western states found two governors with approval ratings in the low-
80s, two in the 60s and one in the 50s.

The sky-high ratings Palin once had are somewhat unusual, he said -- but 
not unheard of.

"Governors in smaller states tend to have much higher performance ratings 
because their constituencies are smaller," he said. "They have personal 
contact with the voters and so there is more familiarity between them and 
the constituents. But 68 percent is pretty good." 

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Oops.

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college 
students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."

- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)


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