Rick Scott

Poll: Gov. Rick Scott's Unpopularity Handicapping GOP Pres Candidates In Florida

Jon Terbush | June 24, 2011, 9:06AM

President Barack Obama (D) and Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL)

A plurality of Florida voters say they are less inclined to support a Republican presidential candidate in 2012 because of the way their freshman GOP governor has acted since taking office, according to a PPP poll to be released Friday morning.

In the survey, 40% of registered voters said Gov. Rick Scott's actions have made them less inclined to back the GOP presidential nominee next year, versus 26% who said his actions had made it more likely they'd vote Republican in 2012. An additional 34% said Scott has had no impact on whether or not they'll support a Republican candidate.

A key finding within those results is that almost one in five (18%) of respondents who said they disapproved of President Obama's job performance said they were still shying away from supporting a Republican alternative because of their dissatisfaction with Scott. Further, 45% of all independent voters said they were less inclined to vote for the GOP nominee after seeing Scott's policies in action, versus only 18% who said Scott had made them more keen to vote against Obama next year.

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Barack Obama

Poll: Plurality Say They're Worse Off Under Obama Than Bush

Jon Terbush | June 22, 2011, 11:24AM

With the economy still struggling to regain some traction, and with unemployment still hovering over nine percent, a Bloomberg-commissioned poll released Wednesday shows that a plurality of Americans say they're worse off now than they were when George. W. Bush was president.

In the poll, 44% of respondents said they are personally worse off now, while 34% said things were worse when Bush occupied the White House.

Further, citing rising gas prices and a expressing doubts about the ability for the economy to turn around in the near future, 66% said the country was on the wrong track.

Those findings pile on top of a spate of recent surveys that have a painted a gloomy picture of Americans' attitudes about the nation's economic health, and shown widespread pessimism about President Obama's ability to do anything about it. According to the latest TPM Poll Average, just 40% of Americans approve of Obama's job performance when it comes to the economy, compared to 55.8% who disapprove -- and things have been getting markedly worse in the past few months.

The Bloomberg poll was conducted June 17-20 among 1,000 adults nationwide. It has a 3.1% margin of error.

Barack Obama

Record Number Of Americans Want Troops Out Of Afghanistan

Jon Terbush | June 22, 2011, 5:45AM

One day ahead of an address to the nation in which President Obama will announce his plans for the nation's future involvement in Afghanistan, a Pew survey finds that a record high level of Americans now support an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops.

In the survey, 56% of respondents said they thought troops should come home "as soon as possible." At the same time, 39% said the military should remain until the situation in Afghanistan has stabilized, a record low in Pew's surveys.

According to multiple reports, Obama will lay out a plan Wednesday night to bring home thousands of troops beginning in July. In addition, he is expected to announce a strategy for bringing home the 30,000 additional "surge" troops he ordered sent to Afghanistan in December 2009.

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Chris Christie

Poll: Gov. Christie's Approval Rating Slumps To Record Low

Jon Terbush | June 21, 2011, 1:50PM

Troubled by Gov. Chris Christie's (R) deep cuts to education spending and his push to cut state employees' benefits, a plurality of voters in the Garden State now disapprove of the the governor's job performance, according to a Quinnipiac poll released Tuesday.

That finding comes as Christie and his allies in the state legislature are pushing through sweeping changes to public workers' benefits, including a big increase in the amount of money employees must directly pay toward pension and health programs. Those proposed changes prompted hundreds of people to protest outside the State House in recent weeks, and now, it seems they've also dragged down the approval rating of a governor who was once quite popular with his constituents.

In the poll, 47% of registered voters said they disapproved of Christie's job performance, compared to 44% who said they approved of it. Though Christie's approval rating is barely underwater, it's still the worst showing he's ever posted in Quinnipiac's surveys, continuing a downward trend that began most markedly at the start of this year when Christie began to push for deep budget cuts and sweeping changes to public employees' benefits.

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2012 elections

Report: Gingrich's Campaign Finance Team Quits

Jon Terbush | June 21, 2011, 12:54PM

New Gingrich's struggling presidential campaign has suffered another setback as members of his fundraising team called it quits on Tuesday, according to the AP.

The AP reported that campaign spokesman R.C. Hammond confirmed fundraising director Jody Thomas and fundraising consultant Mary Heitman stepped down from the campaign.

Via the AP:

People familiar with Gingrich's campaign spending say his fundraising has been weak since he launched his bid and that he has racked up large travel bills. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk openly about campaign inner workings.

Those defections are the latest blow to Gingrich's campaign, which already suffered a mass defection just weeks earlier when 16 top aides simultaneously jumped ship.

Mitt Romney

Poll: One In Five Say They Wouldn't Vote For A Mormon Prez Candidate

Jon Terbush | June 21, 2011, 5:45AM

GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney

According to a Gallup poll released Monday, slightly more than one in five Americans say they would not consider voting for a presidential candidate who is Mormon, even if they think that person is otherwise qualified to be the nation's chief executive.

In the survey, 22% of adults said they would not vote for a Mormon, while 76% said they would.

That finding came one day before former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman was expected to formally launch his campaign, making him the second Mormon, along with Mitt Romney, in the Republican field. Further, it shows that faith could once again become an issue in this year's presidential election, as it was in 2008. In that election cycle, Romney was so dogged by questions about his faith that he ultimately delivered a speech aimed at assuaging those concerns, telling voters that as a Mormon he was still a Christian.

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2012 Presidential Primaries

Call In The Cavalry!: Meet The GOP Dream Ballot

Jon Terbush | June 20, 2011, 5:45AM

Republican voters have sampled their party's presidential choices, but are still left wanting.

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released last week found that less than half of GOP primary voters are "satisfied" with the Republican slate. And in a recent Pew study, when asked for their reaction to the current GOP field, Americans' top three responses to the were "unimpressed," "disappointed," and "weak."

It's no surprise then that some voters are hoping for a white knight to leap into the fold and shake things up. Several polls bear this out, as they've shown non-candidates like Chris Christie and Rudy Giuliani running well or even topping the entire field.

So who are these dream candidates? And will any of them answer the call?

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