Nixon approval falls to 44 percent in Nov. SurveyUSA poll

It's undeniable for the Nixon Administration, things aren't rosy in Missouri these days. And Nixon's approval rating shows that sentiment among Missouri voters.

A new SurveyUSA poll shows Nixon's approval at 44 percent, a 6-point drop over the last month.

Last week, we offered some criticism of another polling firm which generally offers less statistically valid results, but it seems that poll, which showed Nixon's approval at 42 percent, was not far off.

What may be amiss in the new SurveyUSA poll is the proportion of Democrats included. Although the preceding eight approval surveys included approximately 40 percent Democrats, the current one included just 30 percent, a major change in the underlying survey population. This difference alone likely captures the bulk of the decrease in Nixon's approval, perhaps more than actual changes in approval.

Among Republicans, Nixon approval didn't show much movement, although the number of Republicans surveyed did marginally increase.

The Independent numbers may cause some alarm for Democrats in Missouri. The number of Independents greatly increased in the survey, but the approval for Nixon in this crucial voting bloc declined by 9-points (±7.3%).

Regionally the make-up of the survey didn't shift much, but the approval numbers by region did. Nixon's approval actually climbed 14-points (±10.6%) in the North and 1-point in Kansas City (± 8.7%). The rest of the state wasn't quite as rosy as approval declined 13-points in Southwest (±10%), 9-points in St. Louis (±7%), and an astounding 18-points in the Southeast (±10.7%).

There is one bright note for Nixon's team to compare to, at this same point 11 months into the Administration of Nixon's past political rival, former Gov. Matt Blunt (R), Blunt had just a 34 percent approval rating.

For Nixon, the current six month approval average is 52 percent. Blunt averaged just 35 percent over the same time period. So in a relative sense, Nixon does seem to be doing better than his predecessor.

The SurveyUSA poll surveyed 600 likely Missouri voters on Nov. 23 and has a margin of error of 4.1 percent.

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SurveyUSA Polling Data

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