- The Conservative Reader: Iowa - https://iowa.theconservativereader.com -

Governor Culver’s Polling Is Down

opinion-poll-unsatisfactory [1]

From the Iowa GOP web site [2]:

Des Moines – The latest Survey USA poll indicates that more than half of all Iowans disapprove of Governor Chet Culver’s job performance.  Jeff Boeyink, Executive Director of the Republican Party of Iowa, said today, “Governor Culver’s free-spending, big debt, and job-killing agenda is out of touch with Iowa values and it is reflected in job approval ratings that are the lowest of his tenure as Governor.  More than half of Iowa voters now disapprove of the Governor’s job performance.”

In the June 2009 poll conducted by Survey USA, only 42% of Iowans approve of the Governor’s job performance, with more than half expressing disapproval. Independent voters are especially critical of Governor Culver, with 56% of those respondents saying they disapprove of his performance and only 35% expressing support for his work.

Boeyink continued, “Governor Culver and majority Democrats ignored the best interest of Iowans during the last legislative session and now they’re paying the price.  Iowans said they were against borrowing more than a billion dollars to pay for short-term projects. Iowans also said they want a vote to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. And, Iowans say they want to keep federal deductibility.  On each and every one of these issues, Governor Culver consistently ignores the will of the people.

“Iowa Republicans are ready, willing, and able to deliver on the priorities of Iowa voters and, if given an opportunity by the voters, will do so,” concluded Boeyink.

Link to the current poll results [3]

As we’ve said here in the past, Iowa’s funamental financial problem is excessive spending.  Misuse of funds (spending money specifically earmarked for infrastructure on non-infrastructure projects) is a close second. 

The 2009 Legislative Session garnered a significant amount of attention from Iowans specifically because of the inability of the Democratically General Assembly to cut the Governor’s budget (despite Republican recommendations that would have saved millions, many of which came from public comment).  Throwing the public out of a public forum, with no reaction from the Governor’s office, certainly did nothing to enhance the public’s perspective of Democrats respect for those that sent them to serve in Des Moines.

Democrats have an additional opportunity in 2010 to make the lives of everyday Iowans better… or worse.  Continued disregard and apparent contempt for the needs and resources of Iowans may end up guaranteeing a backlash in November 2010. 

We really want to see what’s best for Iowans and it would be great if Iowans can have input into the process.  What is too bad is that the fate of Iowans’ futures are tied to the politics of reelection.