Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 18, 1993                   TAG: 9306180148
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DALE EISMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

CLINTON'S POPULARITY RATING DOWN SLIGHTLY IN STATE

The survey of 825 registered voters, taken last week for several news organizations by Mason-Dixon Political/Media Research Inc., found that 35 percent have a favorable opinion of the president.

That's 3 percentage points less than the number who expressed a favorable opinion in November, just before Clinton's election.

The poll indicated that voters think better of the president personally than of the job he's doing, however. Twenty-nine percent rated his performance as excellent or good. Thirty-nine percent said he's doing a fair job, and 31 percent judged him poor.

The results would seem to validate the early strategy of Republican gubernatorial nominee George Allen, who has been striving to tie Democrat Mary Sue Terry to the administration in Washington.

"The good news for Republicans is that Mary Sue Terry is going to have to defend a very unpopular president," said Jay Timmons, Allen's press secretary.

Timmons said Republicans expect Clinton to provide them a steady stream of issues. Just this week, for example, the House advanced legislation to bar companies from hiring replacement workers during strikes. Clinton has said he'd sign such a bill, which Timmons argued would "basically gut" Virginia's right-to-work law.

Threats to the right-to-work law are a longtime staple of GOP campaigns in Virginia. The law guarantees that Virginians can't be forced to join unions in order to work and that union members can't be denied employment based on their membership.

"Virginians are going to make their decision based on who's running for governor, not who's president," said Tom King, Terry's campaign consultant.

On specific issues, the Mason-Dixon poll found Virginians strongly in favor of Clinton's proposal to cut $200 billion in federal spending (77 percent to 18 percent) and evenly divided on his plans for a $100 billion economic stimulus program (45 percent favored, 46 opposed). A narrow majority, 51 percent, said they disapprove of Clinton's proposal for an energy tax and an income tax increase.

The poll also found a plurality of voters dubious about Clinton's motives in calling for tax increases, which the president has insisted are necessary to cut the federal deficit. Thirty-nine percent of the voters said they believe the tax plans are really aimed at the deficit, while 48 percent said they're designed to provide funds for new federal programs.

Maryland-based Mason-Dixon did the survey from June 8-10. It has a statistical margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

Keywords:
POLITICS