Poll: Franken's Favorable Rating Improves In Wake Of Legal Battle
A new Rasmussen poll has some fairly decent news for Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), who has of course just emerged from a recount and a six-month long legal battle to take his new political office, with his favorable ratings improving from past lows.
The poll finds Franken's favorable rating at 49%, with 49% disapproval. While that would be considered lukewarm for most politicians, consider the fact that Franken and former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) went though a particularly brutal campaign that saw each of them get only 42% of the vote, and both had low favorables and high unfavorables as recently as May.
Interestingly, Coleman is also at 49%-49%, as he reportedly contemplates a run for governor. It's probably a safe bet that the two sets of people who like Franken or like Coleman don't overlap very much.
The poll also finds that 60% of Minnesotans think he can still be an effective Senator, despite the late start.
Josh
Matt
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Brian
The last sentence of the article is the one that is the most encouraging. All through the campaign there was never any emphasis on Franken's education. He is a Harvard grad but the emphasis was always on his SNL days or his comedic mien. I think he will surprise everyone with his grasp of the issues, his intelligence and he will charm people with his dry humor. His heart is in the right place, too, and that will be seen as time goes on.
July 21, 2009 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink