New poll: Blagojevich job rating falls

Quad City Times:

A new poll conducted for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Quad-City Times and Lee Enterprises’ Illinois newspapers finds Blagojevich facing a dismal 34 percent “favorable” rating among likely Illinois voters, halfway through his contentious second term.

That’s a significant drop from the 42 percent rating he received in a similar poll in January. Almost two out of three poll respondents now rate him “unfavorable.”

At the same time, the Democrat-controlled state Legislature has seen a slight improvement in its own still-low favorable rating. The body’s 37 percent rating from January now stands at 41 — this after a year of open rebellion against fellow Democrat Blagojevich on budgetary, ethics and constitutional issues.

“He’s losing that war,” pollster Del Ali said.

The poll was conducted from Sept. 15 to 18 by Research 2000, a Maryland-based polling firm. A total of 800 likely Illinois voters who vote regularly in state elections were interviewed statewide by telephone.

The numbers are generally consistent with other polls in the past two years which show an Illinois public restless with Blagojevich for what critics say are numerous reasons. Among them: a federal corruption probe that has already convicted his top political fundraiser, Antoin “Tony” Rezko, fractious budget battles that have nearly shut down state government and a reputation for political gimmickry and grandstanding while serious state problems go unresolved.

The poll shows that even among Democratic respondents, almost half rank Blagojevich’s job performance as “fair” or “poor.” That may reflect the highly publicized party in-fighting swirling around him in Springfield, where Democratic lawmakers openly mock him from the House and Senate floors and in some cases have called for his impeachment.

Is there anyone who reads this blog who cares to contest this poll?