Polling from Monday Released by Survey USA shows Beshear with an approval rating of 46% and a disapproval rating of 48%. It marks the first time his negatives were higher than his positives.The results of this poll is a stunning turn around for Beshear who was elected by a wide margin just a few months ago.
Looking at the cross tabs two things stick out to me. The odd one was the fact that Republicans were oversampled. This is one of the first polls I have ever seen where Republicans were oversampled. Usually if anything they are under sampled. Which makes one question the validity of the results. I doubt Beshear's approval rating is as low as this study suggests.
With that said, when looking at Beshear's favorability among Democrats it isn't very good. Among his own party members he has a meager 54% approval rating. That doesn't show much confidence in his administration.
I think the drop in approval ratings tell us a couple of things. First it confirms that they have performed poorly during the session. Their biggest initiative, casino gambling, was unable to move through the Democratically controlled house. In its stead they decided for a tax increase. Clearly the public doesn't appear to be too wild the concept of higher taxation. Add to that an inability to pass a budget and you end up with bad polling numbers.
Secondly, it ends any talk about a Democratic mandate from last years election. People apparently aren't crazy about casinos or the Democratic need to tax and spend. Otherwise his numbers would be much higher. No, this poll illustrates that last year was a personal rebuke of Fletcher and not a failure of his administrations policies.
