A new Quinnipiac University poll finds overwhelming support for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's 24/7, hands-on response to the recent storm: nearly 80 percent of those polled give high marks for his handling of the weather crisis.
It's the rest of his policies that give them pause.
Voters, in a generally sour mood over the state of the economy, disapprove of the way the Democratic governor has handled the state budget and 49 percent don't like the way he has dealt with the state's public employee unions.
"People feel so strongly about the economy, about the increase in taxes, that even a strong performance on Irene isn't enough to overcome that,'' Quinnipiac poll Director Doug Schwartz said at a press conference at the state Capitol this morning.
Schwartz noted that 35 percent of Democrats don't approve of the way Malloy is doing his job. "That's a troubling sign for the governor, when a third of his own base disapproves of the job he is doing,'' the pollster said.
Malloy isn't up for reelection until 2014--"he's got plenty of time to recover,'' Schwartz said. "There's no need to panic yet."
Malloy's numbers are the lowest for a sitting governor since John Rowland's negative 28 - 62 percent approval rating in Jan., 2004, six months before he resigned amid a corruption probe. Malloy's predecessor, Republican M. Jodi Rell, enjoyed job-approval ratings hovering around 70 percent for much of her tenure, Schwartz said.
Malloy's senior adviser Roy Occhiogrosso shrugged off poll results. "We have tried to be consistent in not saying much about polls because...what's there to say? Polls come and go, numbers go up and down. The Governor always does what he thinks is best for the state and the right thing to do,'' Occhiogrosso said in a statement released this morning.
Fifty-six percent of Democrats approve of Malloy's job performance while 68 percent of Republicans disapprove. Independent voters are split, 43 to 45 percent. He does slightly better among women than men, the poll found.
There's a bit of good news for the governor: people seem to like him even if they don't support his policies.
Forty-five percent of the respondents--including almost a third of Republicans--said they like Dannel Malloy the man, even as 50 percent said they don't like his policies.
And his performance during the tropical storm won bipartisan backing: 74 percent of Republicans and 84 percent of Democrats praised his approach. Malloy, a former mayor, knows the importance of maintaining control during a crisis and his frequent televised news conferences clearly won him many fans.
But unlike New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, among others, "we did not see a bump for Gov. Malloy after Irene,'' Schwartz said.
Another troubling trendline for Malloy. His job disapproval numbers has climbed in the past six months: in the March 9 Q poll, 40 percent of residents didn't like the way he was doing his job. In the June 15 poll, it increased to 44 percent and stands at 48 percent in this morning's poll.
The legislature fares even worse: 57 percent of those surveyed said they disapprove of the job lawmakers are doing.
The poll also found that -- despite some highly public gripping about their performance -- 61 percent of state residents approve of the way the state's utility companies responded to the storm. Sixty seven percent said power restoration times were "reasonable," while 28 percent it was too slow.
The gap was closer among those who lost electricity for six days or more--51 percent said it was reasonable while 45 percent deemed it too slow.
"Connecticut voters are very understanding of their utility companies," Schwartz said. "Two-thirds think the length of time it took to restore power was reasonable given the extent of the damage. That understanding, however, dropped with each day without power."
The poll of 1,230 registered voters was conducted from Sept. 8 through the 13 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.