IN-Governor: 54% want a new governor, Pence disliked (Bellweather Research)

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Reported by the Times of Northwest Indiana: http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/poll-finds-hoosiers-want-new-governor/article_0bbc71c8-e91d-5838-948b-2b72fab2e1f9.html

The link to the actual report is on the right side of the screen.

Summary:
800 registered voters
Landline & cellphone
May 29th - June 3rd
MoE: 3.5%
42% Republican & leaning, 32% Democratic & leaning, 25% independent
88% white, 7% black, 5% "other", only 3% Hispanic
48% of sample is above age 55
52% female, 48% male

 - 54% say it's time to give someone else a chance, 32% say Pence has earned a second term

 - Pence has 43% unfavorable rating, only 34% favorable

 - Opposition to Pence strong even among groups that plan to support GOP Presidential nominee. Among college-educated men, a heavily GOP group, Pence is down by 16 percentage points

 - 52% disapprove of the way Pence handled the RFRA earlier this year, only 32% support. 40% believe it will continue to negatively affect Indiana's economy.

 - 54% of Hoosiers want protections for LGBT people added, only 32% oppose this

 - 46% disapprove of Pence's handling of the education funding crisis (which has led to large teacher and staff layoffs at public schools across the state), only 36% approve

 - 30% of Hoosiers say they do not know who beseiged Superintendent of Schools Glenda Ritz is, but she is viewed very favorable among those who do, and ties Pence 42% - 42% in an election matchup.

 - In a hypothetical rematch with John Gregg, the 2012 Democratic nominee who narrowly lost to Pence, he leads Pence 41% - 40%, but 41% of Hoosiers say they are not familiar with him.

 - Opposition to Pence is primarily personal, as 54% of Hoosiers say they are satisfied with the way things are going in Indiana, with 44% disapproving.

 - Pence gets good marks on handling economy (53% - 38%) and tax policy (47% - 37%)

[RFayette]

This seems to match other GOP governors in that they are viewed favorably on the economy/taxes/business climate but unfavorably on education.  Pence's problem is that he threw social issues into the mix, and that is annihilating him.  This election seems like pretty much a pure tossup IMO.

[Senator Cris]

Great news!

[ElectionsGuy]

So basically Pence should be leading, but he's not because of education and religious freedom?

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Great news!

Glenda Ritz for gov.

[Gass3268]

I feel like the anger regarding Pence is that he made Indiana an embarrassment to the rest of the country and the world.

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

So basically Pence should be leading, but he's not because of education and religious freedom promoting discrimination?

Yeah, basically. He had a 62% approval rating in February.

The school funding crisis is really pissing a lot of people off, including a boatload of Republican voters. Tony Bennet was the Superintendent of Public Instruction from 2009 - 2013, and his being the point man on Governor Daniels' charge to divert more resources and funding towards charter schools, more standardized testing, and grading schools on an A - F scale (he rigged the system to favor a charter school in Indianapolis, and was accused of federal wire fraud, but was not indicted).

In a upset, he was defeated by Glenda Ritz who took 52% of the vote in 2012 (for comparison, Pence won with only 49.6% of the vote, Joe Donnelly with 50%, and Romney with 54%) to become the only statewide-elected Democrat.

While Pence and Daniels have generously bestowed private charter schools with over $100 million in grants and loans, Indiana's public schools are facing an enormous funding gap mostly related to the way the school funding formula is set up, and so over the past 2 years there's been a lot of layoffs (for example, my former school district laid off over 50 supportin staff in February, and when teacher contracts were up on May 1st, a buttload of them got axed, and class sizes will increase to 30 students per class. That was very painful to hear that so many good teachers lost their jobs).

Indiana is running a $2.5 billion surplus, but it would take only $460 million to fully fund all the schools, and Pence is not budging despite the Republican-dominated state legislature submitting budgets that fully fund them (even many safe GOP legislators are being hounded by their constituents who are angry about this whole fiasco).

Additionally, Pence has repeatedly tried to strip Glenda Ritz of her powers as state superintendent by restructuring the state education board. Enough Republican legislators jumped ship that it mostly failed, but did pass legislation that basically ended elections for the position and allowing the board to elect its own superintendent in 2017 at the end of her term (i.e. Ritz can put her name in the ring, but the board is full of Pence's people, so she has a snowball's chance in hell of getting chosen).

That's why she has entered the race for Governor, because it's either that or go home.

On top of all of this, you had the debacle over the RFRA and the HIV outbreak in rural southern Indiana partially caused by cuts to health services. So people are mad.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Meh. Still Likely R, as there is plenty of time for Pence to allow social issues to fade into the background and he will have presidential coattails and the political leanings of the state to help him out.

[Ebsy]

Meh. Still Likely R, as there is plenty of time for Pence to allow social issues to fade into the background and he will have presidential coattails and the political leanings of the state to help him out.

Your posts never cease to amaze Wulfric.

[Holmes]

When you think about it, this is no surprise. Only Pence can mess up this badly in Indiana.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Meh. Still Likely R, as there is plenty of time for Pence to allow social issues to fade into the background and he will have presidential coattails and the political leanings of the state to help him out.

Your posts never cease to amaze Wulfric.

Hey, as much as I'd love to see a Governor Gregg or Ritz, IN is a very hard state to be confident about the democratic party doing well in. They're atlas blue enough that they probably would have even elected Mourdock in 2012 had he not made a complete fool of himself in the debate stage. Besides, this pollster seems pretty new - per wikipedia, they never polled the 2012 senate/governor race. For all I know, this could be a huge load of junk.

[Flake]

New Poll: Indiana Governor by Bellwether Research & Consulting on 2015-06-03

Summary: D: 41%, R: 40%, U: 19%

Poll Source URL: Full Poll Details

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Meh. Still Likely R, as there is plenty of time for Pence to allow social issues to fade into the background and he will have presidential coattails and the political leanings of the state to help him out.

Your posts never cease to amaze Wulfric.

IN is a very hard state to be confident about the democratic party doing well in. They're atlas blue enough that they probably would have even elected Mourdock in 2012 had he not made a complete fool of himself in the debate stage.

Tell that to Evan Bayh or Frank O'Bannon.  Or President Obama, since he carried the state in his first election.

[mds32]

I wonder if the Republicans are considering a primary.

[Rocky Rockefeller]

I wonder if the Republicans are considering a primary.

Republicans never primary the people that need to be primaried the most

[SATW]

It's still early and Pence can rebound, but clearly he has to change how he is governing or he could lose by a decent amount.

[136or142]

Odd this doesn't seem to be mentioned here or elsewhere on this forum.

From politics1:

Politics1.com @Politics1com
INDIANA: St Supt of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz (D) has quit gubernatorial race; will seek reelection.


I think it's strange you never knew.