Arizona's Brewer Joins Governors Suffering Budget Woes

July 27, 2009 1:53 PM | | Comments (0)

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Jan Brewer

Count Arizona Republican Jan Brewer among the country's governors whose popularity has been hampered by her state's budget crisis. A new Rasmussen poll conducted July 21 shows that likely voters are now split on the job performance of Brewer, who succeeded Democrat Janet Napolitano as governor in January when Napolitano became Secretary of Homeland Security. Forty-eight percent strongly or somewhat approve of Brewer's job performance, while another 48 percent strong or somewhat disapprove.

That's a drop from the 51 percent approval rating she enjoyed in May. Moreover, the majority of respondents - 72 percent - rated Brewer's handling of the state's budget crisis as fair or poor. Just 25 percent said it was good or excellent.

Predictably, it was Democrats who were most critical of Brewer -- 52 percent of Democrats said her handling of the crisis has been poor, compared to 40 percent of Independent voters and 38 percent of Republicans.

Brewer has not confirmed she will run for re-election, but if she does she is likely to face a tough general election challenge in 2010, with leading Democratic contenders including state Attorney General Terry Goddard and state Rep. David Bradley.

CQ Politics rates the race Leans Republican. You can follow our Governors' race ratings on the CQ Politics' election map.

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Tags: Arizona, Bradley, Brewer, Goddard

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