Taft's wasn't particularly unpopular in 2004, so the comparison is weak at best.
Taft had a 6.5% approval rating in November of 2005. I'm willing to bet he wasn't about 35% a year before that.
State Democratic Chairman Dennis White said the numbers show Ohioans have lost confidence in their governor and are angry about the state's finances. That could hurt Republicans at all levels in 2004, including President Bush, who needs to win Ohio.
"You've had the voters in Ohio filled with lies for the last two years," White said. "I think they'll take it out on all the Republicans."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24824-2004Aug22.htmlTaft said he is close to former president George H.W. Bush and graduated from Yale five years ahead of the current president. He is a pragmatic moderate in the old style of Ohio Republicans, but this understated style has not kept him out of trouble in recent years. His approval rating last year sank to 40 percent or lower; in an Ohio Poll earlier this year it had inched back up to 47 percent -- still not good enough to make him much of a drawing card on Bush's behalf.
