Sandoval touts voter support

Six months after taking office, Gov. Brian Sandoval is as popular as when he won election in a landslide, according to a poll released Tuesday that gives him a strong job approval rating.

More than half of Nevada voters, or 53 percent, approve of the job the Republican governor is doing, according to the survey by a GOP polling group. Another 29 percent disapprove. The remaining 18 percent did not have an opinion.

The state's first Hispanic governor, Sandoval enjoys majority support in all 17 Nevada counties, including Clark, the most populous and most Democratic leaning in the state, the poll found.

The Tarrance Group, which conducted the survey for the governor's political operation, said the findings show he has bucked a trend among most governors nationwide who have lost popularity during major budget battles. Both Republican and Democratic polls taken during the first half of 2011 in other states with new governors -- from Florida to Ohio to Wisconsin -- back up that assertion.

Jennifer Duffy, an independent analyst with The Cook Political Report, said Sandoval is among the rising stars in the 2010 class of GOP governors because he isn't a "controversial or hyper-aggressive" Republican leader who picked fights with Democrats running the Nevada Legislature.

"Like every governor, Sandoval has had his battles, but he didn't draw big lines in the sand and didn't pick unnecessary, intractable battles with the Legislature," Duffy said. "I also think that as the state's first Hispanic governor, voters are giving him some space to govern."

Duffy said another popular GOP governor is Susana Martinez of New Mexico, a Western state like Nevada that has a heavy Latino population. Nevada is now 26 percent Hispanic.

Sandoval was elected with more than 53 percent of the vote, nearly 12 points higher than his Democratic opponent, Rory Reid, the son of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Sandoval defeated Jim Gibbons in the GOP primary, besting one of Nevada's most unpopular governors.

Sandoval campaigned on a pledge not to raise taxes. Democratic and GOP polls showed him losing support during the legislative session -- his job approval fell to 44 percent -- after he proposed a budget that deeply cut state spending, including for education and social services.

In the end, Sandoval broke his promise and extended for two years $600 million in taxes that had been set to sunset this year. He said a Nevada Supreme Court ruling forced his hand when it called into question about $600 million he had planned to use from local governments and other funds.

Sandoval's $6.2 billion budget compromise with the Legislature in June largely drew praise, although it angered conservatives who believed he didn't have to break his no-new-taxes pledge.

The new poll suggests the governor hasn't suffered any damage from the compromise.

His "reasoned approach to the budget has won support for his efforts that extend well beyond the traditional groups of voters that would be supportive of a Republican governor," read the polling memo. "Solid majorities of both independent voters and Hispanic voters indicate that they approve of the job that he is doing, as do a majority of self-described conservative Democratic voters in Nevada."

The telephone survey of 501 likely registered voters statewide was conducted July 12-13. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percent.

Here's how some of the data on Sandoval's approval and disapproval marks break down by region, sex, ethnicity and political affiliation:

■ Clark County: 51 percent/30 percent

■ Washoe County: 59/27

■ Carson/Douglas: 57/27

■ Rural Nevada: 58/27

■ Men: 54/28

■ Women: 53/30

■ Hispanic: 51/26

■ Republicans: 73/10

■ Independents: 53/26

■ Democrats: 37/46