Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 3, 1994 TAG: 9402030163
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY ROB EURE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
A statewide poll released Wednesday gives the president his highest marks to date for job performance and popularity. Statewide, 46 percent now rate Clinton's work as excellent or good, up 11 percentage points in the past four months. His personal popularity has jumped from 35 percent to 47 percent, and the number of Virginians with an unfavorable view of him has dropped from 45 percent to 28 percent.
The Mason-Dixon Political/Media Research poll, most recently taken last Thursday through Saturday, had never given Clinton a favorable performance rating of 40 percent or better.
Meanwhile, the poll found that Wilder left the governor's office without the goodwill that helped both his Democratic predecessors end their terms on a popular note.
Wilder's final performance was rated excellent or good by 39 percent of Virginians, remaining consistent with figures from polls taken in his final year in office.
Wilder's predecessor, Gerald Baliles, had a final excellent-good rating of 63 percent; Charles Robb registered 73 percent before that.
Virginians are withholding judgment on Allen, in office less than a month. Allen receives relatively favorable marks among those with an opinion: 37 percent say he is doing a good or excellent job. But 42 percent say it's too early to say.
Robb, now a U.S. senator, continues to get mixed reviews. His job performance is rated as good or excellent by 35 percent of voters.
Robb began his term five years ago as one of the state's most respected politicians, but stories alleging drug use at parties Robb attended while he was governor, along with legal difficulties surrounding his Senate office's acquisition and use of an illegally taped telephone call of Wilder, have driven Robb's numbers down.
Robb, a Democrat, faces a primary in June with at least one rival and the likelihood of a contest against Republican Oliver North in the fall. Mason-Dixon results released Tuesday indicate Robb would defeat North handily if the election were held now.
U.S. Sen. John Warner, who has angered some Republicans by questioning whether North, the party's presumptive nominee, is fit for office, remains the state's most popular elected official.
Warner's excellent and good rating remains high, at 63 percent, as it has since the Mason-Dixon poll began in 1985.
In the new poll, 807 registered voters were interviewed, and the margin of error is 3.5 percentage points.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB