Sen. Cory Gardner’s approval tumbles; Tancredo, Polis lead on name recognition

Washington politics is taking a toll on U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner’s standing with the home folks, a new University of Colorado survey finds.
The survey was taken in November as part of an annual project by the American Politics Research Lab, but the annual Colorado Political Climate Survey was released Thursday.
Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper and Sen. Michael Bennet also took hits on their job performance, but not like Gardner did. And the state legislature isn’t winning any popularity contests with the public, either, if the survey is to be trusted.
The survey suggests only 25 percent of Coloradans approve of Gardner’s job performance – likely tied to the Republican president’s unpopularity in Colorado – down from 43 percent in 2016.
“Not only is Gardner’s overall approval ratings very low among Democrats (12 percent) – as we might expect – but he scores quite poorly among Independents (23%) and even lacks majority approval among Republicans (46%),” the report states.
The finding was based on surveying 800 people in November, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.
Researchers found that while President Obama had a 57 percent approval rating on his job performance among Coloradans, Trump came in at 34 percent. In the 2016 election, Trump got 43 percent of the vote, 5 points behind Hillary Clinton.
Bennet’s approval rating fell from 53 percent to 44 percent, and Hickenlooper retained a majority of Coloradans who approved of his job performance, 53 percent, but that was down from 58 percent in 2016.
For what it’s worth, which isn’t much, the November survey gave a big edge to Jared Polis on the left and Tom Tancredo on the right in the state’s gubernatorial race.
In the Democratic race second place was held by Cary Kennedy at 6 percent. Republican Walker Stapleton trailed Tancredo at 8 percent.
The biggest winner was Undecided: 58 percent among Democrats and 54 percent from Republicans.
“It is still very early, possibly too early, to tell how the gubernatorial primaries will shake out,” the report states. “‘Undecided’ is clearly the leading candidate, registering majorities in both parties.
Researchers opined that Polis and Tancredo were buoyed by name recognition.
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