Projo Politics Blog

For most voters, 2010 is a long way away. But for the inside players, there is already a spirited contest among Democratic adherents of Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts, Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline and General Treasurer Frank Caprio.

All four of these statewide elected officials have been mentioned as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2010. No Rhode Island Democrat has held the governorship since Bruce Sundlun in the early 1990s.

The latest Brown University public-opinion survey, released earlier in the month, shows that all the putative candidates have fairly good ratings. To some extent, the job approval ratings depend on how well known they are and how long they have been in office. Thus, Cicilline (64 percent approval) and Lynch (48 percent approval) have higher ratings than Roberts or Caprio do.

Cicilline has consistently had high job approval ratings since his election as mayor in 2002. His 64 percent is down three points -- an insignificant drop from the 67-approval rating he had in the January 2007 Brown poll. Lynch’s rating is up 8 points from January, when his approval rating was at 40.

Roberts and Caprio have identical 37 percent approval ratings. In January, Caprio had a 22 percent approval rating and Roberts stood at 28 percent.

“The numbers for the newly elected officials are pretty impressive,” said Brown Prof. Darrell West, who supervised the poll. (Rhode Island’s new U.S. Senator, Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, has a 41 percent approval rating, up from 32 percent in January.) “The trends for Roberts, Caprio, Whitehouse and Lynch are all impressive,” said West.

The poll was done Sept. 8 and 9 at Brown. It was based on a statewide sample of 571 registered voters in Rhode Island. The survey carries an error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

The laggard among statewide elected officials is Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis, whose job approval rating is only 23 percent.

Comments

Doe said:

Good site! I'll stay reading! Keep improving!

Link | November 10, 2007 12:38 PM
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ISABEL said:

Knuckle under

Link | November 28, 2007 4:07 PM
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BAXTER said:

Namby-pamby

Link | November 30, 2007 7:14 AM
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