Taft's approval rating is 15% Associated Press
COLUMBUS - Gov. Bob Taft's already-feeble approval rating among Ohioans has fallen to 15 percent, a new poll indicates.
The poll, conducted by the Columbus Dispatch, finds support for Taft lower than the three most unpopular U.S. presidents in the history of polling and possibly the lowest of any Ohio governor.
The Republican governor's approval rating is worse than that of President Truman after he fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur, President Carter during the Iran hostage crisis or President Nixon during Watergate.
Taft was convicted in August of four misdemeanor ethics convictions for failing to report gifts and golf outings and has presided over the state's wide-ranging investment scandal.
Three-fourths of the respondents who identified themselves as Republicans disapproved of Taft's performance.
Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup Poll in Princeton, N.J., said he's surprised that an approval rating could dip so low for anyone who has won a major office.
"Almost any figure who's elected in a partisan election usually has at least some support from his party," he said. "Usually there's a party base. It's hard mathematically to get that low."
Generally accepted political polling began in the mid-1900s. Truman set the Gallup low for presidents, dropping to 23 percent in 1951 and early 1952. Carter slumped to 28 percent in 1978, and Nixon was at 24 percent when he quit in 1974.
"The governor doesn't govern by polls, he governs by good public policy and making a difference for Ohioans," Taft spokesman Mark Rickel said Sunday.
A database maintained by the University of Rochester, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and George Washington University lists 3,261 gubernatorial polls since 1958. Only three governors had an approval rating below 15 percent - none in the past 15 years.
The previous low in the universities' database for an Ohio governor preceding Taft was Richard F. Celeste, who sank to 32 percent in April 1983. The Democrat rebounded to ratings in the 60s just a couple of years later, however.
Poll participant Jim Wilson, 34, who operates an insurance agency in Youngstown, said he has been disappointed by the governor's ethics convictions and scandals at the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation - in which hundreds of millions of dollars have been lost through questionable investments - that have caused problems for the entire state GOP.
"It's the whole package," said Wilson, a Republican.
Since Taft's sentencing, in which he was fined $4,000, more undisclosed gifts have surfaced, but the plea deal he struck with prosecutors prevents additional ethics charges.
Taft doesn't have to worry about re-election because he is barred from a third consecutive term. But the low approval ratings still exact a political toll.
Although Taft's coveted Third Frontier proposal - which proposes to borrow $500 million to recruit and retain cutting-edge jobs - is part of state Issue 1 on the Nov. 8 ballot, he is not the front man for that measure, as he was in a campaign two years ago. Former Democratic U.S. Sen. John Glenn has taken that role.
Even among those who approve of Taft's performance - only 2 percent do so "strongly" - his supporters are less than enthusiastic.
Matthew Wheeler, 18, a Sinclair Community College student from Beavercreek, said he approves of the job Taft has done "to an extent."
Melinda Majers Lewis, 51, of Columbus, was philosophical about Taft's legal woes.
"Everybody makes mistakes, and I don't think anybody ever really tells all the truth," she said. "At least he 'fessed up to it and owned up to it."