Simon Poll: Southern Illinoisans are ticked off – Illinois News Network

 

SPRINGFIELD — Southern Illinois voters are far from pleased about the direction of the state and nation, according to a poll released Monday by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

About 80 of respondents thought the nation (78.8 percent) and the state (79.8) are headed in the wrong direction.

However, about half (50.9 percent) think their city or area is headed in the right direction.

“These results probably reflect some of Illinois’ current conflicts. Most polls show that more
people feel their state is doing better than the nation. Not here,” said John Jackson, a visiting
professor at the institute.

Political leaders also got lukewarm reviews, according to the Simon Institute.

Slightly more than 37 percent (37.4) of respondents somewhat approved or strongly approved of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s performance, while 50.7 percent somewhat disapproved or strongly disapproved. Roughly 12 percent said they did not know.

“Though Democrats and Republicans are evenly distributed in our southern Illinois sample, this is still a conservative area, and one might have thought of it as fertile ground for Gov. Rauner,”
said Charlie Leonard, one of the Institute’s visiting professors supervising the poll.

For Rauner’s “approval ratings to be ‘upside down’ in southern Illinois this early in his administration may not bode well for the pro-business agenda he’s been trying to push,” Leonard said.

The Rauner administration had its own viewpoint.

“The status quo continues to hurt Illinois, and in the past decade of one-party rule the state has led to more than 300,000 manufacturing jobs lost and a $5 billion structural deficit, which is why the state needs the reforms outlined in the Turnaround Agenda,” Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said in an e-mail.

“The governor will judge his performance by his ability to reform state government to grow the economy and create jobs while helping the most vulnerable,” she said.

The Simon Institute said U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk’s job-approval rating was 30.4 percent, with 22.9 percent disapproving.

Nearly half of the respondents (46.6 percent) said they didn’t know how they feel about Kirk, a native of Champaign who now lives in Highland Park.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Springfield, scored approval ratings that exceeded his disapprovals, but not by much.

Half of the respondents (50.6 percent) approved of Durbin’s performance and a third (33.5 percent) disapproved. Sixteen percent said they did not know.

“Voters here have been in a bad mood and they continue to be,” said David Yepsen, director of Simon Institute.

“The only surprise is how many people don’t have an opinion about Sen. Kirk. For a
statewide Republican incumbent to have such ambivalent ratings down here isn’t a good sign for him as he heads into a tough re-election campaign,” Yepsen said.

Kirk “needs to be running well in this area to offset Democratic strengths elsewhere in the state,” Yepsen said.

The Kirk campaign says the senator is doing fine in Southern Illinois.

“Southern Illinois voters clearly approve of Senator Kirk’s efforts to create and retain jobs in Illinois as well as his fight to lower taxes and reduce spending,” said Kirk spokesman Kevin Artl.

The Simon Institute’s Southern Illinois Poll interviewed 401 registered voters across the 18
southernmost counties in Illinois.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level. This means that if we were to conduct the survey 100 times, in 95 of those instances the results would vary by no more than plus or minus 4.9 percentage points from the results obtained.

Live telephone interviews were conducted by Customer Research International of San Marcos,
Texas. No auto-dial or “robo-polling” polling was included. The survey was paid for
with non-tax dollars from the Institute’s endowment fund.

Simon Poll: Southern Illinoisans are ticked off – Illinois News Network

Rep. Tammy Duckworth Fundraising For Senate Bid: Report

 

Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) is reportedly raising money for a potential challenge to Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) in 2016.

In a fundraising letter obtained by The Chicago Sun-Times, Duckworth asked for $1,000 donations from supporters and said that she knew she could beat Kirk, a first term senator whose seat is considered vulnerable.

“In an instant I’ll become a lighting rod for the right and all the special interest money they can pour in the race. My gut tells me I can beat these guys,” Duckworth said in the letter, according to the Sun-Times.

Duckworth, the first female Iraq combat veteran to win a Congressional seat, has been considering a bid since January. Kirk has said he is unconcerned about a challenge from Duckworth.

Former Republican Rep. Joe Walsh (Ill.), who Duckworth defeated in 2012, is also considering challenging Kirk for the seat. The Sun-Times also reported that Democratic Reps Bill Foster, Robin Kelly and Cheri Bustos are considering running.

H/T Chicago Sun-Times

Rep. Tammy Duckworth Fundraising For Senate Bid: Report

Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » Old numbers

 

This poll will probably get a lot of media play because of who sponsored it, but check out the highlighted dates on this thing…

Governor Bruce Rauner’s job approval rating stands at 36.5 percent as he begins his term in office, according to a new poll of registered Illinois voters by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

There were 31.4 percent who either strongly or somewhat disapproved and 23.1 percent who had no opinion about the newly-elected Republican chief executive.

The poll of 1,000 registered voters was taken Feb. 28 to March 10 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. […]

Rauner saw his highest job approval ratings Downstate, where 43.3 percent either approved or somewhat approved and only 26.7 percent disapproved or somewhat disapproved. In the Chicago suburbs, 34.6 percent approved and 32.2 percent disapproved of his performance.
Rauner’s lowest level of support was in Chicago, where 36.5 disapproved and 31.0 percent approved.

Partisanship is also strongly evident in Rauner’s job approvals. He enjoys the approval of 60.6 percent of Republicans, with only 10.3 percent who disapprove or somewhat disapprove. This is followed by 36.7 percent of Independents who approve and 32.7 percent who disapprove or somewhat disapprove. There are 46.1 percent of Democrats who disapprove or somewhat disapprove while only 24.2 percent approve or somewhat approve of the governor’s job performance so far.

February 28? That’s three weeks ago. And they spent 11 days on it? And then they sat on the results for ten more days?

Sheesh.

What, do they have an intern manually dialing an antique rotary phone while tabulating results on note cards or something?

Anyway, if this is accurate, the governor’s approval rating is already in Pat Quinn territory.

* And Illinoisans may not be feeling Rauner’s “turnaround” yet…

63.0 percent [said] that Illinois is going in the wrong direction and only 22.1 percent said we are going in the right direction.

* On to US Sen. Mark Kirk…

Kirk had a total of 44.5 percent who somewhat or strongly approved of the job he is doing, while 21.3 percent either somewhat or strongly disapproved of the job he is doing. These totals meant that Senator Kirk enjoys a net job approval rate of 23.2 percent.

Kirk’s highest approval ratings were in central city Chicago where 48 percent either approved or somewhat approved of the job he is doing, followed closely by 47.0 percent in the Chicago suburbs and 38.0 percent Downstate.

Most (53.1 percent) of Kirk’s fellow Republicans either approved or somewhat approved of the job he is doing with 16.4 percent who disapproved or somewhat approved. They were followed by 44.9 percent of Independents who approved or somewhat disapproved with 23.1 percent who disapproved or somewhat disapproved. Among Democrats, 40.5 percent approved or somewhat approved while 24.0 percent disapproved or somewhat disapproved of the job he is doing.

Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » Old numbers