Bush's approval rating is the lowest for a president in the Ohio Poll's 25-year history.
The approval ratings of President Bush and Gov. Bob Taft among Ohioans have fallen to fresh lows, according to University of Cincinnati's "
Ohio Poll," painting a grim picture for the GOP in the battleground state.
Only 35 percent of respondents approved of the way Bush was handling his job, while 63 percent disapproved. Those presidential approval marks are the lowest in the Ohio Poll's 25-year history, surpassing Bill Clinton's 45 percent rating prior to the 1994 mid-term election, and 14 percentage points lower than a similar poll conducted just over a year ago.
"The views of Ohioans tend to match up pretty well with what you're seeing nationally," said Eric Rademacher, co-director of The Ohio Poll.
Sixty-three percent of Republicans approve of Bush's job performance, down from 84 percent in an April 2005 poll.
The numbers are even worse for Taft. Twenty-six percent approved of his job performance -- the lowest gubernatorial rating in this poll's history -- while 65 percent disapproved. Party affiliation doesn't appear to make much difference in Taft's case: Only 29 percent of Republicans (and 22 percent of Democrats) approve of his job performance.
The estimates -- which include all adults sampled -- had a margin of error of 3.4 percent. The poll was conducted statewide between May 9 and May 21.
Neither Bush or Taft are on the 2006 ballot this fall, but some experts feel their unpopularity may drag on Ohio Republicans.
A
poll released last week, by the same organization, showed Republican Sen. Mike DeWine leading Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown 52 to 42 percent among registered voters in the U.S. Senate race. Rep. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, leads Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a Republican, 50 to 44 percent in the race to succeed Taft as governor. The margin of error for this respondent pool is +/- 3.7 percent.
Rademacher, however, cautions against reading too much into the most recent numbers.
"You shouldn't use spring results to speculate about the fall," he said. "And it could well be that Ohio voters will look at the candidates and campaigns themselves, and not focus on external factors."
