Gov. Susana Martinez’s approval rating now sits at 43 percent, down from a May poll which found her approval rating at 47 percent.
Both polls were conducted by Public Policy Polling for NM Political Report.
The latest poll shows Martinez’s lowest approval rating in a public poll since first taking office in 2011. And now just as many registered voters don’t approve of her job performance as those who approve.
Martinez’s disapproval rating barely changed, from 42 percent in May to 43 percent in August, but her approval rating dropped four percent in the last three months.
But the voters who don’t know what to think of Martinez grew. In the May poll, 11 percent of registered voters surveyed on the governor’s approval rating said they didn’t know. This month, that number grew to 14 percent.
As with the previous poll, Martinez gets her highest marks from Republicans. Nearly two-thirds—63 percent—of Republicans give positive job marks to Martinez compared to 27 percent who disapprove.
Among Democrats and independents, however, more disapprove than approve of Martinez’s job performance.
Just 30 percent of Democrats approve of Martinez’s job performance, compared to 54 percent who disapprove. Among independents, 36 percent approve while 45 percent disapprove.
When broken down by ethnicity, “other” gives Martinez her highest levels of support; 48 percent approve of her job performance while 41 percent disapprove. African-Americans make up just 2 percent of the poll, but 45 percent approved of her job performance to 42 percent who did not.
Among the two largest ethnicities, 44 percent of white voters approved of her job performance to 30 percent who disapproved. Among Hispanics, 40 percent approved compared to 48 percent who disapproved.
As NM Political Report noted after its May poll, polling on Martinez’s approval rating has been scarce in recent years. Since her reelection in 2014, just three other public polls beside the NM Political Report polls have tested Martinez’s approval rating.
A 2015 Morning Consult poll conducted from May to November found Martinez’s approval rating at 54 percent. Another Morning Consult poll conducted between January and May of this year found Martinez’s approval rating at 48 percent.
The second Morning Consult poll found 7 percent of people surveyed undecided on Martinez’s performance.
Both polls looked at the approval ratings of every governor in the country as part of regular national polls.
Before assuming her second term as governor, Martinez’s approval ratings among voters and people surveyed consistently ranked high, often besting 60 percent and never dropping below 50 percent.
In early 2014, a Research and Polling poll for Common Cause New Mexico pegged her approval rating at 55 percent.
Her highest approval rating in public polling appears to be a Research and Polling poll for the Albuquerque Journal in 2012 that showed Martinez with a 69 percent approval rating.
Martinez’s political team released a number of polls showing her approval rating in the 60s, most recently in 2014.
The most recent poll was conducted from Aug. 19 to 21 and surveyed 1,103 registered voters and has a margin of error of +/- 3.0 percent.
Public Policy Polling conducted the poll by surveying 80 percent of respondents by landline phone while 20 percent were conducted via internet panels, aimed a cell phone-only voters.
Public Policy Polling conducted the poll based on questions submitted by NM Political Report. The pollster does conduct polls for Democratic campaigns, though no campaign or other group outside NM Political Report had input on this poll’s contents.
Friday, NM Political Report will release what voters say the Legislature should to to fix the massive budget deficit as well as full crosstabs for all questions.
Correction: This previously said 20 percent were reached via cell phone; 20 percent were conducted via internet panels of those who are cell-phone only. We regret the error.
