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A new statewide poll reveals that 59 percent of
Illinois registered voters want the Legislature to begin impeachment
hearings against Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The survey of 600 registered voters, conducted May
7-10, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent. The Glengariff Group poll found that
Blagojevich’s disapproval rating was a whopping 65 percent, whereas
just 26 percent approve. An Ipsos poll conducted in late March found that
54 percent disapproved of Blagojevich but Ipsos also asked whether
respondents had “mixed feelings,” and Glengariff just asked
straight up whether they approved or disapproved. Glengariff’s survey
found that 26 percent approve of Blagojevich’s job performance
(Ipsos, 13 percent), while 48.3 percent strongly disapproved.
The governor’s job-approval ratings, the
coverage of the Tony Rezko trial, the frustrated attempt to put recall on
the ballot, the disastrous debate over yet another pay increase for
legislators and the governor, and the horrendous “right track-wrong
track” numbers (14 percent said the state was on the right track but
71 percent said it was on the wrong one) all likely contributed to the
impeachment findings. Just 29.6 percent of registered voters opposed the
idea of impeachment hearings; 38 percent strongly supported hearings, and
20.5 percent “somewhat supported” the idea. Democratic voters said they supported the idea, 49.4
percent to 41.5 percent. Indepen-dents overwhelmingly liked the proposal,
backing it 63-24. And it’s probably no surprise that Republicans
loved it: A whopping 73.5 percent of GOP voters said it was a good idea,
compared with just 16 percent who said it wasn’t. Illinoisans are not yet completely convinced that
Blagojevich should be removed from office, but they do seem to be heading
in that direction. Forty-five percent said they supported
“impeachment of Gov. Rod Blagojevich forcing him to leave
office;” 35 percent said they were opposed and 18 percent said they
didn’t know. House Republican Leader Tom Cross has gone out of his
way to downplay impeachment talk in the past few weeks, even though 57
percent of Republicans and 55 percent of independents want the governor
removed. Those numbers ought to give Cross serious pause. “That will only grow,” cracked one very
high-level House Democrat last week when told of the 44.7 percent result
favoring the governor’s removal. Unlike the recall proposal, hardly
anybody is talking about impeachment in the media. If Rezko is
convicted and the impeachment talk heats up, that high-level Democrat is
probably right about growing public support for removing the governor from
office.
The governor’s support had risen among
African-American voters since the last time Glengariff was in the field,
but there was a very high margin of error in that relatively small polling
subgroup, so it may just have been a statistical anomaly. The governor, like President George W. Bush, has
played to his base over and over again, but, as with Bush, that push has
not stemmed the tide in other demographics. Blagojevich’s job
approval among white voters is now just 18.8 percent, according to
Glengariff, down from 29 percent in November. Meanwhile, another statewide poll had a little fun
with Blagojevich’s reputation. Ask Illinois, which conducts automated polls, asked
2,301 registered voters this question last Wednesday: “If you were
given the choice between former Gov. George Ryan and current Gov. Rod
Blagojevich, which do you think would do a better job running our
state?”
More than half, 52 percent, chose Ryan, the
imprisoned former governor. Blagojevich scored 48 percent. You know things are bad when you’re losing a
popularity contest to a federal inmate.
Rich Miller
publishes Capitol Fax, a daily
political newsletter, and
thecapitolfaxblog.com.
This article appears in May 15-21, 2008.
