Rasmussen: End-of-session drama has little immediate impact on Pawlenty approval ratings

While we’re awaiting the KSTP gubernatorial poll numbers that Sarah posted about earlier, let’s pause to note that there’s one approval ratings survey out there that was conducted after last Thursday’s announcement by Gov. Tim Pawlenty that he would veto and unallot his way to balance if the Legislature didn’t come to heel.

A Rasmussen Reports representative confirms to PIM that the Fox9/Rasmussen poll released Tuesday night was conducted on Monday of this week–prior to the end of the legislative session, but four days after Pawlenty’s announcement.

So how did Pawlenty’s approval ratings look compared to those of two months earlier, when Rasmussen last asked the question? Here they are for both periods, with March results in parentheses. [And here are the Rasmussen top-lines for May and March.]

How would you rate the job Tim Pawlenty has been doing as governor?

Strongly approve: 28 percent (24 percent)

Somewhat approve: 25 (32)

Somewhat disapprove: 20 (25)

Strongly disapprove: 26 (19)

You’ll note that the middling answers (the "somewhat" responses) shrunk while the vehemence of the strong opinions grew. So Pawlenty has become a bit more polarizing a figure, which is hardly a surprise. The cumulative approve/disapprove numbers ticked down for Pawlenty: 53 approve, 46 disapprove in May as compared to 56-44 in March. That’s within the poll’s 5-point margin of error.

It’s too bad Rasmussen didn’t continue its "should Pawlenty run for president?" line of questioning from March. Back then 22 percent said he should, 61 percent said he shouldn’t, and 17 percent were undecided. This time they asked whether Minnesotans thought he would run for president in 2012, which is an entirely different, and less interesting, matter. For what it’s worth, 59 percent think he will, 29 think he won’t, and 11 percent aren’t sure.