President Barack Obama is upside-down in the traditionally blue state of Connecticut, according to poll results published Friday. On Twitter, Public Policy Polling called the results “[a]rguably our most shockingly bad for Obama state level poll of the year.”
Obama won Connecticut by 22 percentage points in 2008, but now just 48 percent of Connecticut voters say they approve of the job he’s doing as president; 49 percent say they disapprove.
PPP notes that’s a 17-point net shift since it last polled the state in March. That number gets significantly worse among independents: Only 41 percent say they approve of his job performance, while 53 percent say they disapprove.
Pitted against Mitt Romney, Obama has only a two-point lead: 47 percent to 45 percent. Romney also has a favorability rating that is underwater, though only by one point, with 41 percent saying they hold a favorable opinion and 42 percent saying they have an unfavorable opinion. But among independent voters, Romney holds a 12-point lead over the sitting president.
If any Republican presidential candidate other than Romney gets the nomination, however, Obama is in good shape. Rick Perry, Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann and Newt Gingrich are all at least 27 points upside-down in favorability, and Obama holds at least a 12 point lead over each of them. PPP polling data show Perry giving him the strongest fight, but still losing to Obama, 41 percent to 53 percent.
“Connecticut probably won’t be a swing state at the end of the day,” PPP President Dean Debnam concluded. “But the fact that it’s even close there at this point is symbolic of his broader issues.”
The poll is based on responses to robo-calls by 592 Connecticut voters from September 22 to September 25. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.