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.

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Blagojevich: The Great Divider

Six months after a hot election campaign, elected officials tend to ease back into a period of positive job approval with the voters as they work to win back some of those voters they lost as a result of a tough campaign.

Not so with Rod Blagojevich who seems to be picking up right where he left off on Election Day. And given his latest job approval ratings from voters, perhaps we should refer to the Governor as "The Great Divider."

Six months after a big re-election victory, Gov. Blagojevich is barely hanging on to a majority of voters at 50.6% who say they approve of the job he is doing. 42.1% of voters disapprove of his performance -- and it is the ferocity of that disapproval that is surprising with more people 'strongly disapproving' of his performance than those that 'strongly approve'.

22.8% Strongly Approve
27.8% Somewhat Approve
14.8% Somewhat Disapprove
27.3% Strongly Disapprove

The Governor's job approval clearly continues where his 'positive/negative' perception left off on Election Day. And his 42.1% negatives almost identically match those 43% of voters that disapprove of his Gross Receipts Tax proposal. Six months after Election Day, Gov. Blagojevich's job performance is clearly dividing the state of Illinois in substantial ways.

Blagojevich's 50% approval is being driven by an 81% job approval among African American voters -- higher than he ever polled among that constituency during the month of October 2006. And the City of Chicago gives him a 75% job approval rating -- again, driven by African American voters.

But he's bombing among white voters who now disapprove of his performance 42.2% - 50.7%. And look at his job performance by region:
75% - 20% Chicago
57% - 33% Non Chicago, Cook County
44% - 47% Collar Counties
33% - 58% West/ Northwest
35% - 62% Central
37% - 59% Southern

Take a look at the crosstabs here. Today's headlines in the Chicago Tribune cannot be good news for a Governor clearly struggling to get his footing with voters who are not letting go of the negative feelings they built up during last fall's slash and burn re-election campaign.

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