Approval Ratings For Lowry Rising Latest Poll Shows More Approve Of Performance, But Only 15 Percent Would Vote For Governor Again

A new poll supports the idea that Gov. Mike Lowry is a good governor, even if voters don’t like him very much, the head of the state Democratic Party says.

In the latest independent Elway Poll, 32 percent of registered voters believe Lowry is doing a good or excellent job, up from 21 percent of voters last July. It is Lowry’s highest rating since July 1994.

But the poll also found that even with rising approval ratings, only 15 percent of voters would be inclined to vote for Lowry for a second term.

“One of the things that I hear all the time is that he may not be popular, but he’s a damn good governor,” said state Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt. “A lot of people like what he’s doing, like his handling of the state’s economy, yet at the same time, for a whole variety of reasons, find it hard to say they’re going to support him. This poll kind of confirms that.”

Republican Party spokesman Todd Myers had a different view of the poll result.

“I don’t know if 32 percent is anything to cheer about,” he said.

The poll, which surveyed 528 Washington voters Dec. 18 and 19, found that 60 percent of voters had a negative view of Lowry, down from 76 percent last July. The poll has a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points.

The poll is the only independent, regularly conducted assessment of voter opinion about the governor.

Lowry’s showing contrasts sharply with extremely low approval ratings last summer after a former press secretary accused him of sexual harassment. But his ratings are higher than they were in December 1994, before the harassment allegation became public.

The poll showed that Lowry’s positive ratings among women jumped from 19 percent last July to 35 percent in December, among Democrats from 33 percent to 50 percent, and among Seattle voters from 36 percent to 48 percent.

But the poll showed that Democrats and Seattle voters were, by a 2-to-1 margin, inclined to vote for a Democrat other than Lowry this fall.

The 15 percent of voters who said they were inclined to vote for Lowry for re-election was down from 24 percent last July. Twenty-six percent said they were inclined to vote for another Democrat, and 26 percent said they were inclined to vote for a Republican.

Two Democratic candidates for governor, Sen. Nita Rinehart and former U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, also have said that Lowry has done a good job as governor but that it is time for him to retire. Lowry has said he will announce in April or May whether he will run for re-election in November.

Berendt said that since the Elway Poll of July 1994, Lowry had a number of visible successes: He was the first governor to travel to Vietnam, he led the successful push for the Legislature to finance a new Seattle Mariners baseball stadium, and Intel announced it would open a major computer manufacturing plant in Pierce County.

Berendt also said he expects Lowry to benefit from his criticism of the Legislature’s tax-cutting plans in recent weeks, and that he could benefit from continuing criticism of the Legislature.