Our ex-governor Mitt Romney has a low approval rating: 42% approve of the job he’s doing; 52% disapprove.
I know, I know: yawn. The difference it makes is for the legacy of the MA GOP. I can’t imagine how you’d say that he leaves it in better shape than when he parachuted in here in 2002. Healey’s vulnerable poll numbers definitely show the signs of Mitt-fatigue. That has to be taken into account when we think about why she’s trailing Reilly and Patrick*; her own brittleness hasn’t done her any favors, but these guys have been acting that way for 3 1/2 years.
All in all, looking up for our guys. And “having Mitt for breakfast”— along with a positive vision for where the state’s going — may be a decent political strategy.
UPDATE: By the way, here’s a nifty tracking graph. Obviously, Our Ex-Guv hit the skids when he decided not to run again.
*Correction: Healey’s leading Patrick in the latest polls. My bad.
Can anyone tell me why 42% could have a favorable opinion of Romney?
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I mean, is it simply a balance thing? Are people not paying attention? I don’t understand.
Most people don’t pay a lot of attention to politics. A significant chunk of those who do, and of those who don’t, are conservative. Romney hasn’t been grossly incompetent, and his missteps and bad policy aren’t obvious to people who don’t follow the news. I suspect of those who do follow the news, we’ve got about 25% strong conservatives in MA who approve of him because they agree with his policies, and of those who don’t follow the news, there could be over 50% who are just okay with the status quo for a mix of reasons – party balance, automatic lukewarm support for the incumbent, conservative ideology, read some puff piece about him, whatever. Don’t underestimate that “automatic lukewarm support for the incumbent” factor: people who don’t follow politics at a level of detail necessary to have an informed opinion are very likely to tend that way by default, unless they have strong ideological disagreement with the incumbent and the know about it.