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

DATE: SATURDAY, September 4, 1993                   TAG: 9309040141
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DALE EISMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

POLL SAYS VIRGINIANS DON'T LIKE CLINTON

Virginians have sized up President Clinton during his first eight months on the job and have decided they don't like him, according to a new poll.

Twenty-eight percent of the state's voters rate Clinton's performance to date as "excellent" or "good," according to the survey by Mason-Dixon Political/Media Research of Columbia, Md. Thirty-nine percent said he's doing a "fair" job, and 31 percent rated him "poor."

Clinton's ratings were virtually unchanged from a Mason-Dixon survey in June.

The new poll also indicated growing voter unease with Sen. Charles Robb, who in recent months has backed two unpopular Clinton initiatives: opening the military to homosexuals, and a budget and deficit reduction plan that includes significant tax increases.

Thirty-seven percent of the 809 voters polled now rate Robb's work as excellent or good, down 12 percentage points from a Mason-Dixon survey in January. In contrast, Sen. John Warner, a Republican who generally has opposed Clinton, was rated highly by 65 percent.

Gov. Douglas Wilder, with whom Robb frequently has feuded and who plans to run against Robb next year, also fared badly in the survey. Thirty-seven percent called his performance excellent or good. Survey results that were released Wednesday indicated that Robb and Wilder would finish in a virtual dead heat if Democratic voters had to choose between them in a primary now.

The survey indicated that the weakness in support for Clinton, Robb and Wilder cuts across geographic lines. Clinton and Wilder were judged most favorably in Hampton Roads, where 36 percent said the president is doing an excellent or good job and 44 percent gave those marks to Wilder. Robb's best showing was in Southside, where 41 percent of the voters judged him favorably.

All three Democrats got higher marks from women than from men. They also did better among blacks than whites, though only Wilder, rated good or excellent by 74 percent of blacks, fared about as well as Democrats usually do among black voters.

The poll, conducted Aug. 26-28, had a statistical margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

Keywords:
POLITICS

by CNB