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Matt Blunt: Missouri's Third Most Popular Governor
If you seek accurate information about Missouri governors, you haven't been getting it recently from KY3's Dave Catanese.
Take this weekend's report on a Survey USA poll about Jay Nixon. Mr. Catanese included Jay Nixon's approval rating, but not his higher disapproval. Earlier he included both the approval and disapproval of Barack Obama as reported by Survey USA. According to the survey, only 38% of Missourians approve of Obama and 58% disapprove of the President.So why omit the percentage of Missourians disapproving of Jay Nixon? Probably because more Missourians disapprove of Nixon than approve of him. You won't find it on KY3, but in case you were wondering, 46% of Missourians disapprove of the job Jay Nixon is doing. Only 44% say they approve of him. All of this makes clear that Jay Nixon is not a popular governor. In fact, the data shows just the opposite.
More bias appeared in Mr. Catanese's report on a recent Democrat poll that tested the popularity of the last five Missouri governors. KY3's report on a survey by Public Policy Polling asserted that Governor Matt Blunt was the least popular governor. This is not true.
A closer look at the poll shows Governor Blunt is Missouri's third most popular governor. Governor John Ashcroft came in first. Governor Mel Carnahan came in second.
We examined the PPP data and found that 50% of the least popular vote went to Democrat Governors Carnahan, Holden and Nixon, and 50% went to Governors Ashcroft and Blunt.
It is important to note that 3 Democrat governors shared 50% of the unpopular vote while only 2 Republican governors shared the remaining 50% balance. Therefore it is not surprising that a Republican governor got a larger share of the least popular vote in a lopsided 3-2 competition. Let's face it, what Missouri Republican would test higher than John Ashcroft. The fact that Matt Blunt did as well as he did with this conservative icon in the mix is remarkable.
Now here's where it gets interesting. Let's look at the regions where Missourians believe Mel Carnahan was the worst governor in 25 years despite the understandably reverent treatment he has received since his death. Mel Carnahan is the most unpopular governor in the 636 and 660 area codes. These are critical battlegrounds in the upcoming race between Roy Blunt and Robin Carnahan.
For Mr. Catanese to suggest that Matt Blunt, the third most popular Missouri Governor, is somehow going to hurt Roy Blunt's Senate campaign while ignoring the fact that Mel Carnahan's worst governor status in key regions could impact Robin Carnahan's campaign is pretty blatant. In fact, Robin Carnahan is the one in real trouble. It is now looking like she will be running for office with an unpopular governor as the leader of her state party in addition to dealing with the fact that the president is beginning to be as unpopular as his policies.
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