Michigan’s incumbent Republican governor, Rick Snyder, has a four-point lead over his likely opponent in 2014, congressman Mark Schauer, according to a new survey from Public Policy Polling. Voters do disapprove of the job Snyder’s doing, 49–42, but being up 44–40 isn’t a bad place to be in a relatively blue state. Snyder, a former businessman, was elected in 2010 by a 16-point margin. Michigan’s economy remains seriously depressed, with a 9 percent unemployment rate, though that’s down from almost 14 percent when Snyder was elected.
Because Democrat Carl Levin isn’t running for reelection in 2014, one of Michigan’s Senate seats is open, and the likely Republican nominee, former state secretary of state Terry Lynn Land, leads that race by two points in the PPP poll (42–40). Both candidates aren’t very well known, though Land has a 34–23 approval rating, while her probable opponent, Democratic congressman Gary Peters, has a neutral rating.
President Obama’s approval rating in the state is underwater, 47 to 51. A full 45 percent of the state thinks the Affordable Care Act’s rollout has been “very unsuccessful” and 48 percent disapprove of the health law.
Forty-seven percent of Michiganders oppose the right-to-work law passed by the legislature last year and championed by Governor Snyder, and 45 percent say they’d support a referendum to repeal it (against 39 percent who say they’d oppose such a move).
Via Politico’s Morning Score.