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Purple Maine: Strong Marks for Mills. Trouble for Collins?
Results of the
Critical Insights on Maine™
Spring 2019 Tracking Poll
Full Report Available Here
Portland, Maine
–
May 30, 2019:
Maine’s new Governor, Janet Mills
, is off to a strong start, with roughly half of voters in Maine saying they approve of her performance through her first 75 days in office (47%). While it is still very early in her term, this matches her
predecessor’s
peak approval rating across his entire tenure (in his eight years in office,
Governor LePage’s approval
rating fluctuated between 31% and 47%). Results from the same poll of 612 registered Maine voters were not as positive for Senator Susan Collins, who is up for re-election in 2020. Senator
Collins’
s overall approval rating has declined sharply in the past year, reaching an all-time low of 41% (dropping from 51% last fall and 58% last spring). In fact, for the first time, Mainers are just as likely to
disapprove
of
Collins’s performance (42%) as
approve
(41%). Bob Domine, President of Critical Insights, the Portland-based, non-partisan marketing research firm that has been conducting the
Critical Insights on Maine
™
tracking poll since 1996, says,
“If I had to
speculate on a single factor underlying this slip in Collins
’
s approval rating, it would be her
pivotal vote in Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court
. Her approval was both strong and steady prior to her vote last fall, and it has continued to slip since then.
”
Critical Insights has just released the results of its Spring 2019 voter poll, which also shows a decline in voter a
pproval of President Trump’s performance
. Currently, 34% of voters in the state approve of
the President’s
performance, down from 41%, last fall.
Trump’s
approval ratings nationally match his approval ratings here in Maine: 36% of surveyed consumers across the country approve of the way Donald Trump is doing his job (source:
DRI’s bi
-weekly
NationWise™
poll of 1,500 Americans, conducted April 19 - 24, 2019).
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Page 2
Domine added,
“While it’s still too early to make predictions about Collins’s or the President’s chances in next year’s elections, we will measure voter sentiment
several times leading up to
the election for any telling signs.”
Approval ratings of most other policymakers have held steady or improved since last fall:
•
Almost six out of ten voters approve of Senator King’s performance in office (57%, vs.
52% last fall).
•
Almost half of Chellie Pingree’s constituents
(46%) approve of her job performance, holding steady from last fall (when 43% approved).
•
Four out of ten constituents approve of new representative Jared Golden’s performance
so far (38%). Even though he was the first member of Congress elected by ranked choice voting and is serving in a traditionally conservative district, the Democrat
’
s approval rating is on par with Bruce Poliquin
’
s approval rating
–
his Republican predecessor
–
when he left office (36%).
•
Four out of ten approve of the performance of the current state legislature overall (39%), an increase since last fall (33%).
###
****** About the Survey ******
Critical Insights on Maine
™
is a semi-annual tracking poll that was launched in 1996. It is conducted as a public service to Maine residents, businesses, and governmental decision-makers. As an omnibus survey,
Critical Insights on Maine
™
offers organizations a convenient and cost-effective way to pose their own proprietary questions to Mainers, twice each year. The spring 2019
Critical Insights on Maine
™
tracking poll was conducted between March 16 and April 1, 2019. It included 612 completed surveys of registered voters (half surveyed by phone; half surveyed online). It has a +/- 3.9 percentage point sampling error at the 95% confidence level. More information about the survey can be found here.
****** About Critical Insights ******
Critical Insights, a division of Digital Research, Inc., is a full-service, non-partisan marketing research firm dedicated to providing creative qualitative and quantitative research services to the public sector and to private business.
Page 3
****** About the
NationWise
™
Survey ******
The
NationWise
™
survey is fielded every two weeks. Each wave of the survey includes at least 1,500 American adults, reflecting the demographics of the U.S. population. As an omnibus survey,
NationWise
™
offers a convenient way to pose questions to American consumers throughout the year. The
NationWise
™
survey results shown here were collected April 19-24, 2019. These results have a +/- 2.5 percentage point sampling error at the 95% confidence level. More information about this survey is available here.
****** Contact ******
For more information on how your organization can participate in
Critical Insights on Maine
™
or
NationWise
™
or to learn more about our custom research services, please contact us directly at 207-772-4011 or at: Info@Criticalinsights.com