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Kaine has high approval ratings: A new poll shows that 54 percent of voters rate his job performance as "excellent" or "good."
[October 05, 2008]

Kaine has high approval ratings: A new poll shows that 54 percent of voters rate his job performance as "excellent" or "good."


(Roanoke Times, The (Roanoke, VA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 5--A majority of Virginia voters approve of Gov. Tim Kaine's job performance despite looming state budget problems and a legislative stalemate over transportation funding, according to a new poll conducted for The Roanoke Times.



In a survey by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, 54 percent rat-ed Kaine's job performance as "excellent" or "good" while 11 percent gave the Democratic governor a "poor" rating. The results come from a telephone survey of 625 registered voters conducted Monday through Wednesday. The poll has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

Kaine's job approval rating has changed little since a poll conducted in July 2006, about six months after he took office. Kaine's strongest support is in Southwest Virginia, where he has a positive job rating of 60 percent. His support is weakest in the Shenandoah Valley and Piedmont regions and in Lynchburg and Southside Virginia, where fewer than half the voters give him favorable marks.


Kaine's ratings are similar to those that his predecessor, Democrat Mark Warner, had at the same point in his term. Warner left office with an approval rating of 74 percent.

The new Mason-Dixon poll was conducted a week before Kaine is expected to announce deep cuts to the state's two-year, $77 billion budget. His administration has warned that tax collections could fall $2 billion to $3 billion short of projections because of an economic downturn.

Kaine also has struggled to gain legislative support for a plan to address the state's transportation funding problems. Key provisions of a 2007 funding package have been scrapped, including regional plans for Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads that were nullified by the Virginia Supreme Court. The Republican-controlled House of Delegates this year rejected efforts to increase taxes and fees for road and transit projects during a special session.

But even as Kaine butted heads with the General Assembly, he gained national attention as a key supporter of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Kaine, a national co-chairman of Obama's campaign, was among a handful of Democrats considered as possible vice presidential candidates.

To see more of The Roanoke Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.roanoke.com/.
Copyright (c) 2008, The Roanoke Times, Va.
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