-PPP's newest poll of the race for Governor in Missouri finds Democratic incumbent Jay Nixon cruising to reelection. He leads by 19 points with 54% to 35% for Republican challenger Dave Spence. This is the biggest lead PPP has found for Nixon since January.
Nixon continues to be one of the more popular Governors in the country with 54% of voters approving of him to 29% who disapprove. Spence continues to be widely unknown. 45% of voters don't have an opinion about him one way or another. Among those do 25% see him favorably, while 30% have a negative view.
Nixon has the Democratic vote pretty much locked down, 87/7. He also has a commanding 54/31 lead with independent voters, and is winning a much higher than normal 23% of the Republican vote across party lines.
-The greatest intrigue in state level races this year may come from the contest for Lieutenant Governor. Republican incumbent Peter Kinder holds a small lead over Democratic challenger Susan Montee, 42-38. Kinder's lead is down a tick from 7 points the last time PPP looked at the race in late August. Key for Kinder is that he's winning the GOP vote 77/7 despite his less than impressive victory in the primary- the party unified around him quickly. Still this looks like it should be a close race.
-Roy Blunt continues to have mediocre poll numbers, with 37% of voters approving of him to 36% who disapprove. That's actually an improvement from most of our surveys since he's taken office though, which have generally found him with an upside approval spread.
-One final note on Missouri- 73% of Democrats there say they're 'very excited' to vote this fall, compared to 62% of Republicans. The enthusiasm gap that bore a lot of the responsibility for the horrible year Democrats had there in 2010 seems to have dissipated.
Full results here
Nixon's The One!
Posted by: Alan Snipes | October 04, 2012 at 05:00 PM