The latest Quinnipiac University poll Finds Governor still way ahead of Democratic Mayors John DeStefano Jr. and Dannel Malloy.
The poll's most intriguing finding is that Governor Rell's approval rating is 75 percent among Democrats and 52 percent of them say they would rather vote for her than the Democratic nominee. Her overall approval rating is 78 percent and 82 percent among unaffiliated voters.
Governor Rell's approval rating is only 5 percent lower than the 83 percent mark she hit a year ago. Her lowest rating was 73 percent last August.
The Quinnipiac poll showed Rell defeating New Haven Mayor DeStefano by a 64 percent to 21 percent margin, and Stamford Mayor Malloy by 68 percent to 17 percent in the general election.
In the race for the Democratic nomination, DeStefano leads Malloy 36 percent to 18 percent among registered Democratic voters, but the real leader in that contest is undecided with 42 percent.
DeStefano Campaign Director Shonu Gandhi blames the Mayors' poor showing on the fact that incumbents enjoy a huge early polling advantage.
The Day [registration required] reports Mayors DeStefano and Malloy haven't gained on the governor. In four separate Quinnipiac polls, DeStefano has been stuck at 21, 22, 19 and 22 percent. Malloy remains between 17-18 percent.
Governor Rell's high approval ratings among unaffiliated voters is important because in Connecticut there are more unaffiliated voters than either Republicans or Democrats.
In this article The Day [registration required] reports Malloy campaign manager Chris Cooney said the poll results are “not surprising and blamed the results on name recognition:”
“Gov. Rell has been a statewide figure since 1995, when she was John Rowland's lieutenant governor, and since she became governor herself in July 2004, she's been on TV and in the newspaper virtually every day,” Cooney said. “Those two factors have given her an understandably huge lead in name recognition, which is what is largely driving these poll results.”
The poll was conducted January 4-9, 2006 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percent. The poll surveyed 433 Democrats, with a margin of error of 4.7 percentage points. Complete results are available here.
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