55 percent of Virginians approve of the job that Governor Bob McDonnell is doing, says a Quinnipiac poll released today. This is a job approval that bests his Republican colleague Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey – and likely further solidifies himself as someone who might be on the national Republican ticket in 2012.
When you couple today’s numbers with McDonnell’s trip to see the Koch brothers in Colorado (along with Texas Gov. Rick Perry), his national position with the Republican Governors Association (he’s vice chairman; Perry is chairman), Virginia being the top-ranked state for business (Texas is second), and his ability to balance the budget without raising taxes, it certainly looks good now for McDonnell to be considered for vice president.
And, McDonnell’s popularity transcends to Democrats too.
“Even among Democrats he is within 10 points of parity, an unusually high level of support for a governor from the opposition party,” said Peter Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute to the Roanoke Times.
But there are other interesting things going on in this poll too.
For example, Virginians have what seems to be a very clear opinion of Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli: You either like him or you don’t.
He has a 49 percent approval rating, yet he also holds an unfavorable rating of 31 percent. However, that still is a very good margin for the AG.
Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling, on the other hand, has a job approval ratio of 2:1, but only 59 percent of Virginians have an opinion of him. 39 percent approve and 20 percent disapprove of how he’s handling the job; however, this means 41 percent of Virginians don’t even register a thought about his job performance.
With Bolling preparing to run for governor in 2013, these numbers present the opportunity for him to define himself to Virginia voters. But the danger he faces is Virginians asking the question, “What did you do for eight years?”
With the speculation now being open that U.S. Senator Mark Warner wants his old job back in 2013, Bolling will have to define the narrative of how he did a better job for the Virginia economy and job creation, among other matters, than when Warner was governor.
As long as we’re speculating, there are also rumors that given Cuccinelli’s visibility that potentially he’d run for governor in 2013. I don’t discount that, but if Warner runs for governor, and if Cuccinelli decides not to seek another term at Attorney General – the office that’s giving him the national spotlight – I feel he will run for U.S. Senate in 2014.
With Warner entering the picture for 2013, this means Terry McAuliffe may not want to challenge the former governor who left with a near 70 percent popularity for the Democratic nomination. This means, in 2014, we could possibly see a McAuliffe v. Cuccinelli battle for U.S. Senate.
So how would the GOP field shake out in 2013? The most likely scenario is:
Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling – Governor
Prince William Supervisor Corey Stewart – Lieutenant Governor
State Sen. Mark Obenshain – Attorney General
Then again, this is all idle speculation from a very interesting poll.
