Looks like Rick Perry’s Texan charm just isn’t flying any longer. Two polls show the Lone Star governor on a painfully downward trajectory.
Last week a poll showed that general election voters just don’t seem to like him very much. It wasn’t overwhelming, but Perry only retained a 23 percent favorability rating in a national poll done by ABC News and the Washington Post. Perry was viewed negatively by 31 percent, giving him an underwater overall score while a large portion of the general electorate had no opinion. President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney each ran even on their ratings. Then, Quinnipiac University polling found a similar trend: voters were split on Obama and Romney, but Perry was maintaining a negative favorability rating in the important swing state of Pennsylvania.
But on Thursday things may have continued downward for Perry on the popularity front. A new Public Policy Polling (D) survey of Florida showed that a large majority of state voters, 58 percent, see Perry unfavorably, versus only 29 percent. Again, President Obama and Romney are the two most liked of the candidates polled.
Not surprisingly, the Presidential match-ups reflect this trend: Romney is only down one to Obama, 46 – 45, and Perry is bested by seven points with Obama getting a majority, 50 – 43. Both Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) make it a closer race against Obama than Perry, with Paul actually coming within one point. The results reflect another Quinnipiac poll of Florida that was released last week showing Romney the much stronger candidate against Obama.
“Florida makes it pretty clear that out of the two Republican front runners there’s one
who can beat Barack Obama and one who can’t,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling in a release. “There’s no way the GOP wins next year without Florida, and it doesn’t look like Rick Perry can do that.”
It doesn’t take a long look within the numbers to see why Perry’s popularity is struggling. The Texas Gov. has problems with both with his base and with independents. 29 percent of Republicans in the poll see him unfavorably, with only a slightly majority of 52 percent in positive column. And Perry tanked with unaffiliated voters in the poll, earning positive marks from only 22 percent versus 61 percent who very him negatively.
That trend translates to the general election match-ups as well: Romney runs fairly even with Obama among independents and actually gets more Republicans to vote for him than Perry, a surprising results considering Perry has been seizing the conservative vote during his first month in the campaign.
The PPP poll used 476 automated telephone interviews with registered Florida voters conducted from September 22nd to the 25th. The poll has a sampling error of 4.5 percent.
