State Democrats today are hooting over a new poll that shows that President Obama actually might be more popular in Kansas than Gov. Sam Brownback.
The poll of 523 registered voters by SurveyUSA shows Brownback with an approval rating of 36 percent. Obama's approval rating in the same poll showed the president at 38 percent.
Forty-nine percent disapproved of Brownback while 15 percent had no opinion, according to the poll done for KWCH-TV in Wichita. The governor's poll, done from Jan. 19 to Jan. 24, had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
The governor's office declined comment and referred questions to the Republican Party.
"Some survey results fail the common sense test," the Republicans said in a statement.
"How seriously can you believe a poll that shows President Obama, who received 41% of the Kansas vote, within three points of Senator Moran who received 71% of the vote. That is nonsensical," the GOP said.
The GOP says its own internal polling shows a very different picture of Kansans' support for Browback's agenda. The GOP says that under Brownback 12,000 private sector jobs have been created and the economy continues to be on the rebound.
The latest poll numbers come as Brownback is in the infancy of a new legislative session in which he is asking the Legislature to undertake a massive overhaul of the state tax code and rewrite the school finance formula.
The new numbers come months after the Brownback administration became ensnared in a fight with a high school tweeter and his first choice as chief technology officer had to resign after questions were raised about his academic credentials.
Early in this session, questions have surfaced about the governor's tax proposal, which has been dubbed as "Robin Hood in reverse" because of how it raises taxes on people earning less than $25,000 a year while lowering taxes for everyone else.
"Kansas Democrats believe in education, opportunity and responsibility," Democatic Party Chairwoman Joan Wagnon said in a statement.
"These are values and priorities that all Kansans share. But this administration's solutions for education are to slice funding to historically low levels and shift the burden of paying for schools to the backs of local property taxpayers," Wagon said.
The SurveyUSA polls generally shows the governor to be weak across all age groups with his strongest support (47 percent) with voters 65 and older.
Brownback continues to be extraordinarily popular with conservatives and voters who identify with the Tea Party,
The poll shows Brownback with support from 70 percent of those who connect to the Tea Party and 64 percent from those who consider themselves conservative.
He has support from 23 percent of moderates and 14 percent from liberals.
