Governor’s job performance rating at three-month mark is 56 percent

By David Urban and Tom Gresham

RICHMOND, Va. (April 24, 2006) — A majority of respondents holds positive views of Gov. Tim Kaine’s job performance three months into his term, according to a new Commonwealth Poll released Monday by the Virginia Commonwealth University Survey and Evaluation Research Laboratory. Among the 638 respondents who rated the governor’s performance, 56 percent believe he is doing an excellent or good job, while 44 percent believe his performance is fair or poor.

A majority of respondents also expressed a positive view of the financial management of state government as 62 percent of respondents rated it excellent, very good, or good and 38 percent rated it fair or poor.

The Commonwealth Poll was conducted between April 4 and April 18 with 801 adults in Virginia and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Kaine’s performance rating is slightly lower than former Gov. Mark Warner’s job performance rating in a July 2002 Commonwealth Poll, six months into the first year of the Warner administration. In that poll, 60 percent rated Warner’s performance excellent or good and 40 percent rated it as fair or poor.

Democrats were decidedly more positive about Kaine’s performance than Republicans; 73 percent of respondents identifying themselves as Democrats gave Kaine excellent or good ratings. Among Republicans, 59 percent said Kaine was doing a fair or poor job, and 41 percent said excellent or good. Independents were evenly split with 50 percent rating Kaine’s performance excellent or good and 50 percent fair or poor.

Compared with the results for Warner in July 2002, Kaine fared slightly better among Democrats, but his performance ratings were worse among Republicans and Independents.

“The most important thing about the governor’s current performance rating is that even though it is still early in his term, there is now a benchmark against which the results of future polls can be compared,” said David J. Urban, Ph.D., director of The Commonwealth Poll.

The opinions of Virginians about the financial management of state government were significantly better than they were in September 2004 – the last time the Commonwealth Poll asked about the issue. Among the 749 respondents who rated the financial management of state government in the current poll, a majority – 62 percent – rated it excellent, very good or good, while 38 percent believe it fair or poor. In September 2004, respondents were almost evenly split, with 51 percent giving a rating of excellent, very good or good, and 49 percent providing a rating of fair or poor.

The positive view of the financial management of state government cut across party lines. The percentages of respondents who gave ratings of excellent, very good or good were 67 percent for Democrats, 62 percent for Republicans and 60 percent for Independents.

According to Urban, “This result shows a clear shift in the positive direction compared to the September 2004 poll.”

More information on the Commonwealth Poll can be found at http://www.vcu.edu/commonwealthpoll/.