Jackson Free Press

After the Jackson Free Press broke on our blog May 15 and then in our print edition May 18 that Gov. Haley Barbour has some of the worst gubernatorial approval ratings in the country, according to a survey conducted by SurveyUSA of 600 Mississippians on May 10, we waited to see how long it would take the state's media to catch up with the news.

Television rebounded quickly with WLBT and WAPT running stories on May 19. WLBT even conducted its own non-scientific online poll that had found by the 10 o'clock news that Barbour was 1 percent less popular than the national surveyor had found—only 36 percent instead of 37 percent.

By Friday, Democratic lawmakers were passing around printouts of the results, and the Sun-Herald in Biloxi was quoting Barbour's office saying that the poll was "flawed" because it did not poll enough of his voters—the over-55 crowd (it polled 29 percent over 55; the Census shows 28.49 percent of the state's population is over 55).

But the most determined hold-out seemed to be The Clarion-Ledger, which as we go to press, still has not reported the approval ratings (except for allowing a mention of it at the bottom of syndicated columnist Bill Minor's column Sunday). A JFP reader even wrote the editorial board during the week, asking why they hadn't reported the approval ratings. She forwarded us the response to her from one of the editors, who explained that they had not published the findings because they did not commission the poll and are not familiar with the organization (SurveyUSA) that did it. Thus, they had to check out the group's methodology before they could publish its results. Presumably, by Sunday's paper—in which there was much discussion of Barbour's influence at the Legislature and GOP strength in the South—the organization had not checked out to their satisfaction.

However, a mere two weeks before, on April 29, 2005, the organization apparently had passed Gannett's muster. That day, The Clarion-Ledger ran a prominent 369-word news story, "Poll has Melton leading mayor's race," about a poll by SurveyUSA. This one happened to be commissioned about a candidate they would endorse two days later for mayor. That SurveyUSA poll, paid for by local TV station WJTV, predicted that Frank Melton would win the Democratic primary with 64 percent of the vote; he won with 63 percent.

In its report about that SurveyUSA poll, The Clarion-Ledger also included detailed break-outs of the poll findings by sex, age and race in a sidebar.

Previous Comments

ID

64578

Comment

Go, girl!

Author

Steph

Date

2005-05-27T08:50:36-06:00

ID

64579

Comment

Thanks, Steph. This was a juicy morsel of hypocrisy to stumble upon. It was hard to stay quiet about it on the blog until the print edition came out. ;-) As I've said many times, I don't give a rat's elbows about polls, and rankings, and statistics that can so easily be manipulated. However, I love being able to throw stuff like this back at the cherry-pickers who are so obsessed with the numbers that help their agendas, but not the ones that don't. Which is it, guys? Obsession with numbers and polls, or not? (Melton's "mandate" vs. Stokes' "mandate" comes to mind. Sigh.) BTW, it is important for all to note the difference between what was surveyed hereóin Barbour's case, they were surveying overall approval ratings of the state. In Melton's case, they were surveying who was likely to vote for him in the primary. There is a profound differenceóand that difference speaks to why Pete Smith's comments are so worthless about this approval rating. It's. Not. About. An. Election. It's about whether Mississippians think Barbour is a good governor. They don't. Overwhelmingly. Also, to clarify, the Census says that 28.49 percent of the stateís voting-age population is over age 55.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-05-27T12:33:45-06:00

ID

64580

Comment

The C-L sent me a postcard, and it appears that they may be printing my letter to the editor referenced in your article.

Author

Steph

Date

2005-06-14T14:15:06-06:00

ID

64581

Comment

Ah, two months after this poll was taken (and we pointed out above that SurveyUSA was good enough for a positive Melton poll, but not a negative Barbour one for the Ledge), David Hampton gets around to acknowledging it: It is much different with Barbour. He is remaking state government and is becoming the strongest chief executive the state has had since the 1890 Constitution neutered the office. His policies are impacting people at home and not always in a way that adds up on the positive political side. The only public polling on Barbour's popularity was a survey released in May by SurveyUSA, which asked 600 Mississippians "Do you approve or disapprove of the job that Haley Barbour is doing as governor?" Responding, 55 percent said they disapproved, 37 percent approved and 8 percent were unsure. At the time, Barbour critics were delighted and distributed the poll results. I was not surprised, however, and thought the disapproval rating might actually be higher. (Barbour's staff disputed the poll's accuracy). ... Barbour is flying high. He has beaten the Legislature at every turn and is realigning the state power structure. That doesn't come without political risks. I suspect what Barbour is saying and what voters are thinking are two different matters altogether. Way to stay on top of the news, guys. And interesting that Hampton waited until after all Barbour's special sessions had ended to actually put this in his paper. (Rolling eyes)

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-07-17T07:27:33-06:00