Popular Governor

SurveyUSA polled all 50 states for their approval of their governors. Governor Sebelius has a 60% approval, 30% disapproval. This is pretty similar to last month's result. Support among Democrats was almost unchanged (slight improvement), Republican approval held steady while disapproval dropped significantly, but Independents narrowed noticeably, with a 12 point shift from 63:28 to 51:37. That's worrying, but not way beyond normal month-to-month variation. The Sebelius campaign has to be watching that number carefully, but falling unhappiness among Republicans has to be encouraging.

She is the 16th most popular governor, and the 14th highest net approval (approval minus disapproval).

The bottom five governors are (from #50):

• Bob Taft (OH)
• Frank Murkowski (AK)
• Kathleen Blanco (LA, note that many Democratic voters are currently without phones)
• Arnold Schwarzenegger (CA)
• Matt Blunt (MO)

The national approval rating for the incumbent governor is 47%.

A recent Rasmussen poll shows the race unchanged since last month (last month in parentheses):

Sebelius (D) 47 (46)
Jennison (R) 36 (32)

Sebelius (D) 45 (46)
Barnett (R) 37 (35)

Governor Sebelius needs to gain less than half a point per month until next November. I expect she'll do fine, though I'm not saying this will be easy.