Malloy's continuing loss of support among Democrats may seem a little surprising.
A poll from Quinnipiac University released on Wednesday found that Connecticut voters disapprove of the job Governor Dannel Malloy is doing, 58 to 32 percent. It's his lowest approval rating ever.
The governor got four-to-one negative scores for his handling of taxes and the state budget, and negative grades on character ratings, including leadership qualities, honesty, and caring about voters' needs and problems.
Malloy's score is the lowest in the nine states surveyed this year by the Quinnipiac University poll. But he may not be all that concerned. During an appearance on WNPR's Where We Live earlier this month, Malloy said he was pushing forward his agenda on transportation initiatives and criminal justice reform, delivering on his campaign promises to do so.
"I think we've all assumed for a long time that he's not going to run for governor again, even before we saw numbers like this," said WNPR's Colin McEnroe on Wednesday's Where We Live. "This would tend to drive that point home."
But Malloy's continuing loss of support among Democrats may seem a little surprising. "You get down into specific issues like taxes, and budget, and stuff like that, you have a greater than majority number -- I think on one of those indices, 61 percent of Democrats disapprove of the job that he's doing," McEnroe said.
"The question is: what's next?" said Khalilah Brown-Dean, political science professor at Quinnipiac University, during the show.
"You know, not just for the people of Connecticut, but is this a national profile?" Brown-Dean said. "Is this part of a bigger problem? If you look at the base, if you look at the groups of voters who are most likely to support him, they are the ones who are saying these new economic policies, these planned cuts, reopening contract negotiations, trying to change higher education -- those policies are going to affect his base the most. And so, if you lose that base, what is left for you to really govern on?"
Listen below to a brief exchange about the topic on Wednesday's Where We Live:
While campaigning a year ago, Malloy called himself a porcupine during a Where We Live appearance. "You don't have to love me," he said. "I'm a porcupine. That's okay. But I make decisions. I'm moving the state forward. I have responded to crises -- Irene, or Superstorm Sandy, or winter storms, or quite frankly, the terrible situation that played itself out in Newtown. I lead. That's what I got hired to do."
The poll also took an early look at the state's 2016 U.S. Senate race. It found that Democratic incumbent U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal has a two-to-one lead over two possible Republican challengers: Lawrence Kudlow and August Wolf.
Diane Orson contributed to this report.
