Obama up 13 in Connecticut

Barack Obama doesn't need to worry about losing Connecticut this fall, but it definitely continues to be one of the states where he's fallen the furthest. Our new poll there finds him leading Mitt Romney 54-41. That's up from him having only an 8 point advantage when we polled the state in July, but it's down a good deal from his 23 point margin of victory there in 2008.

Obama's actually losing independents 50-43 to Romney. But there are far more Democrats in the state than Republicans, and Obama's winning 20% of the Republican vote on top of that, more than we've found for him in just about any state.

Obama's approval rating in Connecticut is over 50%, at 52/44. Meanwhile voters there aren't particularly warm to Romney with 41% rating him favorably while 53% hold a negative opinion. Obama has the edge over Romney both on who voters trust more about the economy (51-43) and foreign policy (54-40). Obama won't match the size of his victory last time in the state but he's still pretty safe.

Other notes from Connecticut:

-Dan Malloy continues to be one of the most unpopular Governors in the country with only 32% of voters approving of him to 51% who disapprove. Even among Democrats he has just a 49/34 approval rating. The 2014 race for Governor could be very competitive- right now Malloy trails a generic Republican opponent by a 42-38 margin.

-Richard Blumenthal continues as ever to be Connecticut's most popular politician with 53% of voters approving of him to 31% who disapprove. Those numbers are up from a 49/36 spread when we polled the state in July.

-Joe Lieberman's broken even on his approval numbers with 40% of voters approving of him and 40% disapproving as he prepares to leave office. Republicans (53/27) like him, while Democrats (31/46) don't. He's still not real popular but he's come a long way from last March when we found him at 29/58.

Full results here

Comments

[Matt D]

Other polls show Obama up with independents in CT. One poll even showed him up 21. I wish I could compare this to 2008 polling...but PPP did no polling of CT in 2008.

[Bob]

Can anyone explain why Connecticut's governor is so unpopular?

[gslh]

Ct voters have a hangover from a prolonged and ugly fight w/state employees over healthcare and pensions.The bottom line is no one would have fared better under a Rep. governor and I can most assure you if the Rep. were to put up their same cand. as last time he would lose. Remember we had a rep gov for many yrs who went to jail but had given st employ a 10 yr very gen contract and the current gov reopened neg.

[Sharon]

Now the facts about the governor in Ct., outside of the view from the state union. The deficit is growing, money has been wasted on programs no-one wants and taxes have skyrocketed. The state is in fiscal heart failure and Malloy is giving it an enema.
On another front, why can't PPP do the same thing I did to find out what the actual voter registration really looks like? Oh, that's right they have to stoke the ego of the Democrats.

[Dave_U]

Yeah it was the unions - and a republican would now be just as unpopular - not the MASSIVE tax increases and insane spending anyway despite financial tightness everywhere. Oh and not forcing a totally partisan vote to let over 7000 convicts out EARLY he forced the Party to 'support' him on...We LOVE that !

[Peter Mizla]

I voted for Malloy- however he has turned out to be another conservative Democrat. He gutted the Sustinet health care bill that would offered some relief to the 370,000 people in the state with no health care access. He has proven to be a good puppet of the Health Insurance CEO's and the Hedge Fund Bankers in Fairfield county. He has done little to engage the state in green technologies- where nearby Massachusetts has created thousands of jobs. Malloy basically had hoped for the continued trickle down theories of the last 32 years to prop up the states economy (which has lead to the state having the second highest wealth disparity in the nation) I switched my party affiliation to the Green Party.

[jeff Wright]

The CT Governor is unpopular because he spends money like a drunken sailor at a union convention. The State is the highest taxed in the country, jobless rate is the highest and corporations are fleeing in record numbers. The only corporation that are staying are the ones being bought off with tax subsidies . Please see Jackson Pharmaceuticals and Bridgewater Capital.

Bottom line.......Governor Malloy is spending far more than the State is taking in revenue. Declining revenue I might add.

[The Truth]

Well, Mr Malloy is so unpopular because he killed us with his tax increases, he is controlled by the state employee unions who got such a sweet deal from him while the rest of us are struggling to keep our heads above the water,he INSULTED us by telling us he had a balanced budget partly balanced by union suggestion boxes ( how absurd and ridiculous ), his boy Roy pounces in an ugly manner anyone who dares to question anything the Gov says or does ,and finally, for now, it is SO obvious that Mr. Malloy is only using his governorship as a stepping stone for a position in Washington where he can worship Mr. Obama close up. These are just starters to answer your question why is Governor Malloy so unpopular.

[Jeff]

I'm sorry but just because you polled and it shows that it's 'tighter' doesn't mean that Obama wont win that state by the same margins as last time. There is something called margin of error and btw accuracy of polling isn't as scientific as you claim it is.

Obama will crush Mitt in this state, no matter what you guys try to say.

[Obama 2012]

I think as more Democratic leaning Indies are now proudly calling themselves Democrats instead of Independents we are seeing two things happening:

(1) More self ID'd Dems in polls.

(2) The remaining independents will be more Republican leaning because of this shift (especially if even more Republicans are calling themselves "Independent" these days) ... so we (Obama supporters) shouldn't be too worried about Romney doing well with this group.

All that really matters is the topline #!