President Bush Performance rating is at all-time low
Nearly a year after Nevadans narrowly voted to re-elect George Bush, a new poll suggests the president would have trouble winning an election here today.
Just 41 percent of voters view his performance as excellent or good, according to a poll conducted last weekend for the Review-Journal.
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The poll of 625 voters statewide found 59 percent viewed Bush's performance as "only fair" or poor. The phone survey, conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
The numbers, which mirror Bush's performance rating in polls nationally, are the lowest among polling figures for the president commissioned by the newspaper.
"People are really beginning to realize that he's not fighting for us and that he's fighting for his closest corporate cronies," said Nevada Democratic National Committeeman Steven Horsford.
"We've got 2,000 troops that have died in Iraq, and we still don't have an exit strategy, and we have seen his crony at FEMA bungle the response to Hurricane Katrina."
Nevada Republican National Committeewoman Beverly Willard downplayed the poll, saying the "only fair" category can be considered "good."
"The numbers are down, but they're not horrible," Willard said. "But this administration doesn't run on polls. The president sticks to his agenda and what he believes is right, not what polls say."
Republicans in Nevada still largely approve of Bush's performance, with 71 percent giving him an excellent or good rating.
Bush was recognized favorably by 52 percent of voters just weeks before the election last year. In a number of 2004 polls for the Review-Journal, his unfavorable rating was typically at 40 percent.
Horsford said he thought the new poll numbers bode well for Democrats in 2006 and in the presidential election two years later.
But Robert Uithoven, campaign manager for Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Gibbons, said that "most Nevadans have traditionally viewed all politics as being local."
He said a governor's poll conducted for the Review-Journal, which showed that two Republican candidates could beat either Democrat in the race, augured well for Republicans running statewide next year.
"Because of those results, I don't think that some of the hard times the national Republicans are facing could trickle down to Nevada," Uithoven said.
Political consultant Billy Vassiliadis said history supports Uithoven's contention.
Republican Sen. Paul Laxalt won in 1974 after the Watergate scandal, and Democratic Gov. Bob Miller and Democratic Sen. Richard Bryan both won in 1994 when Republicans took over the House of Representatives.
"The fact that the president is making it not a popular time to be a Republican helps a little," said Vassiliadis, an adviser to Democrats. "Is it going to turn around a 7-point race? No. Could it in a 2-point race? Yes."
The new poll shows that the president's performance rating has dipped in all parts of the state. In rural Nevada, where voters helped carry the state for Bush last year, 52 percent of those polled rated his performance either fair or poor.
Republican Washoe County mirrors the statewide numbers, while in Clark County, 39 percent approve of the president's performance.
Bush typically polls better among men than women. The new poll shows 38 percent of women view Bush's performance as good or excellent, compared with 44 percent of men.
Among Democrats, 89 percent rated Bush's performance as fair or poor, while 29 percent of Republicans chose those categories.
State Republican Party Chairman Paul Adams also downplayed the numbers, saying the public has been swayed by media coverage of Bush.
"People only know what they read in the papers and see on TV," Adams said. "The papers today are harping on the 2,000 deaths in Iraq, which I think is unconscionable. They're not focusing on the constitution that just passed there."
Adams said Republicans in Nevada will do fine in next year's election "after we have the opportunity to go out and explain to people that there's more to it, and more to the president, than what they read in the paper."
David Damore, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said that even with Bush's numbers at historic lows, Democrats will not be able to capitalize unless they have the right candidates.
"It all depends who runs," Damore said.
Nevada remains evenly divided among registered Democrats and Republicans. Republicans currently have an 822-vote edge in the state.
Bush won Nevada by 21,500 votes in 2000, leading both parties to redouble their efforts in the state last year. Bush beat John Kerry last year by a margin of 50.47 percent to 47.88 percent.
