Obama's Illinois Popularity Continues to Soar

Sun Times columnist Carol Marin yesterday asked if Barack Obama was "out of the loop" when it came to his home state of Illinois? We asked voters in Illinois what they thought of Sen. Obama's job performance.

A whopping 73% of Illinois voters approve of the job Sen. Obama is doing representing Illinois in the U.S. Senate.

But it's not just the high approval number that's surprising, it is the intensity of Sen. Obama's support in Illinois that is impressive. 50.3% of Illinois voters 'strongly support' Sen. Obama's job performance while 22.7% 'somewhat support' his performance.

That means a majority of Illinois voter don't just approve...they STRONGLY approve.

50.3% Strongly Approve
22.7% Somewhat Approve
9.0% Somewhat Disapprove
7.7% Strongly Disapprove
10.3% Don't Know

We already knew that Democrats approved of him -- and 87% in Illinois approve of his performance as do 69% of Independents. But the shocker is that by a margin of 54.8% to 29.6% Illinois Republican voters support the job Sen. Obama is doing.

Most political figures would be thrilled to have a 54.8%-29.6% job approval statewide -- just ask Gov. Blagojevich. But Sen. Obama has those job approval numbers among his home state voters from the opposing party.

His numbers are hitting the stratosphere among some demographic groups such as an 83% job approval rating in the City of Chicago and 88% among African American voters. Read the crosstabs here.

At this point, there is just no weakness in Sen. Obama's home state job approval numbers. Democrats, Independents, Republicans, downstaters, collar county, young and old, white, Hispanic, and African American. It appears Sen. Obama's job performance is one of the few things upon which Illinois voters actually agree.