Abercrombie can learn from other low-rated governors

Gov. Neil Abercrombie told us that he was the governor and not your pal; last week we learned that most of us are not his pal either.

Public Policy Polling, a Democratic polling company, found Abercrombie the least-liked governor in the nation. Not only was Abercrombie held in disapproval by more than half of those asked, his approval numbers were plunging, dropping from 48 percent approval in March to 30 percent approval this month.

Some could argue that Abercrombie was the victim of a lousy poll, but it would take a willful suspension of rational thought to think that the rating for U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (62 percent approval) was not flawed, but Abercrombie’s numbers were wrong.

Or you could say that the methodology was screwy because it was an automated telephone poll. But PPP was more accurate than newspaper polls in predicting the upset victory by Scott Brown in Massachusetts and many of the state-by-state predictions in the 2008 presidential race. So as polling goes, PPP is demonstrably accurate and it usually works for Democratic organizations like Daily Kos, so you can’t call it a political hit outfit.

Perhaps it is Abercrombie’s positions. Maybe people in Hawaii don’t approve of Abercrombie because of his positions on the issues?

For more than a decade, civil unions and same-sex marriage have been the most controversial, long-lived public policy issues before the community. Abercrombie has always been first in line to urge if not gay marriage, then civil unions.

Last week’s poll showed that 77 percent of Hawaii’s voters favor gay couples having legal recognition, with 90 percent of Democrats, 77 percent of independents and 59 percent of the Republicans in approval. So, Abercrombie is not upside down on the issues.

Maybe nearly two out of three Hawaii voters dislike Abercrombie because it is a sign of the crummy times. How can anybody be popular when the economy is still sputtering?

California has to be one of the nation’s economic calamities: teachers are laid off, schools overcrowded, not enough money to keep prisoners in jail and even issuing IOUs for tax refunds. Plus the electorate is not kind and understanding; remember how they hounded Gray Davis out of office?

But Gov. Jerry Brown is running a 49 percent approval rating. That is after he failed to broker a deal to pass the state budget and after he tried to raise taxes. Brown, like Abercrombie, is 73 and one supporter noted, "He doesn’t have a thing to lose, he just tells it like it is."

Another Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo, is running a 66 percent approval rating, according to a September poll. Unlike Brown and Abercrombie, Cuomo has much more to show for his high marks. His budget proposal, property tax cap and same-sex marriage bills all cleared the New York legislature. In fact, 53 percent of the New Yorkers surveyed said President Barack Obama could take lessons from Cuomo on how to deal with a legislative body.

The fellow Abercrombie replaced as least-liked governor in the nation is Florida’s Rick Scott, a tea party Republican who had 57 percent job disapproval rating.

Like Abercrombie’s first reaction to the bad numbers, Scott shrugged them off, saying he was focused on jobs and "growing the economy."

After two poll cycles at the bottom of the barrel, Scott fired his senior staff, toured the state to listen to the people of Florida, invited the press to cover him and managed to get the disapproval rating to 50 percent.

In life you can rebuild a bad relationship; in business you can rebuild your credit rating; stay out of trouble and you can wipe your driving record clean. But once you lose it with the voters, you need a 180-degree turnaround, not a charm offensive.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.