Palin's Loses Popularity at Home

Palin remains a big draw on the campaign trail, but her popularity here at home continues to drop since she joined the Republican ticket as John McCain's running mate.

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By KTVA CBS 11
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Story Created: Feb 23, 2011 at 5:00 PM AKDT

Story Updated: Feb 23, 2011 at 5:00 PM AKDT

Original article posted Oct. 18, 2008

Governor Palin's popularity among Alaskans continues to fall. Palin remains a big draw on the campaign trail, but her popularity here at home continues to drop since she joined the Republican ticket as John McCain's running mate.

From a survey of 500 Alaska likely voters, Sarah Palin's positive-negative rating in Alaska continues to fall, with a drop of three points in the last two weeks.
 
The governor's negative rating here has shot up to thirty percent, the highest since she took office. Meanwhile, the approval rating sits at sixty five percent, the lowest in the last two years. To put that into perspective, it's still near being one of the highest Governor approval ratings in the nation.
 
The Governor's Spokesperson Bill McAlister said, "I think most governor's would kill to have an approval rating in the sixties. It's very high."
 
Palin once had an 89-percent approval rating, one of the highest in the nation, within weeks that number has fallen to sixty-five-percent. After years of support across the state, Alaskans are now holding anti-Palin rallies in town.
 
Pollster Ivan Moore said, "It's a combination of the fact that she's being a pit-bull with lipstick out on the national campaign trail and also the Troopergate stuff, which is kind of building up here and will continue to until we get the report by the end of this week."
 
Spokesman Bill McAllister added, "The governor does very well when she can coordinate directly with Alaskans, and unfortunately right now she's not able to do that. But however, this comes out when she comes back to Alaska. I think we'll see those numbers go up again."
 
Meanwhile Alaskans want answers to Troopergate, and current issues happening in our state.
 
Moore commented, "I think there's probably also a certain amount of discontent about the fact that she left the state and leadership of the state or the department of law anyone got abdicated to McCain operatives."
 
"Well keep in mind that Bill Clinton and George W. Bush both were sitting governors when they won the presidency in 1992 and 2000, and that's at the top of the ticket, and I've never heard any suggestion that Arkansas or Texas went to hell when they were running their campaign," added McAlister.
 
The governor's spokesperson Bill McAlister says while governor Palin's been on the campaign trail she's been able to keep in close touch both through her blackberry, telephone, and is able to confer several times a day with her chief of staff.
 
McAlister said, "Of course we prefer the 80's to the 60's , but we think there can be a rebound there. We think that when all is said and done in Troopergate, we'll find that it's much ado about nothing."
 
Moore predicted, "I think it'll depend on how she handles it.  She'll have some explaining to do to a bunch of people, to a bunch of people. Some of it is probably irretrievable."

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