Coleman Up 7 Points on Franken in New Poll
Republican incumbent Senator Norm Coleman continues to lead likely DFL challenger Al Franken in the latest survey of 500 likely voters by Rasmussen. The survey, conducted April 22nd, gives Coleman a 50 to 43 percent lead, up from 48 to 46 percent a month ago.
Though Coleman’s lead is very fragile for an incumbent, he continues to show promise in retaining his seat with his relatively high favorability numbers—currently at 55 percent. Coleman’s favorability rating has ranged between 51 and 56 percent in six Rasmussen surveys conducted during the past 13 months.
Franken’s unfavorability numbers have also remained relatively static during that span, holding between 45 and 48 percent in five of these six surveys. These are Hillary Clinton-esque unfavorability numbers—there appear to be roughly half of Minnesotans who just do not like Franken. Minnesotans who are recently forming their opinion of Franken, however, seem to be viewing him favorably. In March 2007, 15 percent of Minnesotans had no opinion of Franken, with just 39 percent holding a favorable view. Now, in April 2008, only 5 percent of Gopher State residents have yet to form an opinion of the satirist, and his favorability rating has climbed to 48 percent (holding steady from a month ago).
Why no mention from the same STRIB story source of the major drop in approval ratings of Gov. Pawlenty. That looked like headline stuff, but no headline.
There are a few reasons for not mentioning this bit on Governor Pawlenty:
1) Plainly, this was an entry on the U.S. Senate race, not the governor.
2) There was really no “major drop” in his approval rating. While Pawlenty’s “excellent” and “good” rating dropped from 49 in March to 44 percent in April, his “poor” rating also dropped a point, from 24 to 23 percent. Moreover, his approval rating in February was a very similar 45 percent (also a Rasmussen poll), so this is not unfamiliar ground for the Governor in recent months.