Marylanders give Steele 19 percent approval rating
Only one in five Maryland voters has a favorable opinion of Michael S. Steele, the former lieutenant governor who now chairs the Republican National Committee, according to a survey released this week by Public Policy Polling.
More than half, meanwhile, have an unfavorable opinion of Steele, and he would lose a hypothetical rematch of his 2006 Senate race with Democrat Benjamin L. Cardin by 30 percentage points, according to the survey. Based in Raleigh, N.C., Public Policy Polling is headed by Democratic pollster Dean Debnam.
Opposition to Steele is particularly strong among fellow African-Americans, the demographic he was supposed to help attract to the Republican Party. Just 6 percent have a favorable opinion of him; 73 percent have an unfavorable opinion. In a rematch of the Senate race, African-Americans would vote for Cardin by an 89-3 margin.
The telephone survey of 569 Maryland voters was conducted July 10-12, before Steele issued his statement Wednesday defending Tea Party activists from accusations of tolerating racism but after his comments about President Barack Obama and the war in Afghanistan.
Those comments, in which Steele described the eight-year-old war as “a war of Obama’s choosing” and said it was not “something that the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in,” led to calls from the conservative Weekly Standard and on redstate.org for his resignation as RNC chairman.
Steele is most popular among Republicans: 42 percent have favorable opinions of him; 31 percent view have unfavorable opinions. The splits are 17/53 among independents and 8/68 among Democrats.
Forty-two percent of voters approve of Cardin’s job performance, while 28 percent disapprove, according to the poll. Fifty-one percent would vote to reelect him in 2012, while 33 percent would support a Republican opponent.
Comments
This man is an embarrassment to the Republic and to me as a Black Professional Woman. He is a clown and does not represent the party well at all. They need to replace him SOON.
Posted by: deltasweetiepi | July 16, 2010 8:14 AM
Remember the Peter Principle - Michael Steele is the new definition!!!! What a jerk.
Posted by: bellefontegirl47 | July 16, 2010 8:20 AM
Let's see you took a poll about the leader of the Republican party in a state that is 95% Democratic and expected a favorable response???
What a waiste of time that was. Duh??
Posted by: TGC3RD | July 16, 2010 8:40 AM
TGC3RD,
I guess you have a short memory. Steele received 44% of the vote in the 2006 Senate race. There goes your theory about Maryland being "95% Democratic".
Posted by: MCG | July 16, 2010 9:03 AM
He lost my respect when he made up that big story about people throwing Oreos at him at an event. I was there and nothing of the sort happened. The guy is a nut.
Posted by: derpydoo | July 16, 2010 9:04 AM
Well, memo to O'Malley - start running ads with Ehrlich and Steele cuddling up to each other. I'm sure there are plenty of ridiculous pictures of those two clowns in the vault.
Posted by: Rick | July 16, 2010 9:11 AM
Kind of hard to take too serious an article that has a grammar mistake in the first sentence . . .guess the Sun had to lay off their editors (O:
Posted by: Michael McMonk | July 16, 2010 9:47 AM
Gonna have to side with TGC3RD on this one. The National Socialist Workers Party Peoples Republic of Maryland is overwhelming socialist - uh, I mean Democrat.
Posted by: Dragineez | July 16, 2010 9:52 AM
So in a state that is 60-70% liberal democratic, we are surprised that Michael Steele has an unfavorable rating?
Posted by: BMAC1206 | July 16, 2010 11:03 AM
Guess the grammar mistake must have been fixed, unless you consider the agreement between "one in five Maryland voters..." and "has" to be the mistake, in which case you are...um...mistaken, because it is correct.
Posted by: Ted D | July 16, 2010 11:16 AM
Another one of your 569 voter polls by the Democratic outfit from North Carolina. With the Obama recession in Maryland couldn't you at least have hired a Democratic pollster from Maryland?
As I wrote before, you say 569 voters were telephone surveyed. The population of Maryland is approximately 5.8 million people so you say telephoning 0.009 percent of the state residents allows you to headline that the majority of Maryland voters disapprove of Michael Steele.
When is the Sun going to stop distorting the news to fit their ideological agenda?
And when did your newspaper stop reporting news and started fabricating it?
Posted by: Cranberry Joe | July 16, 2010 11:29 AM
Why is it that I always read about a poll, but have never been question or involved in any polls? Do they call only certain people, do they only go to elderly care centers? You know the saying, "the media persuades public opinion and creates controversy.” It’s definitely true in regards to the Baltimore Sun; they are a biased company that sides for the (left), following only the Democratic Party.
Posted by: John Smith | July 16, 2010 11:41 AM
mr. steele has been a pleasantly consistent disaster for a party that deserves exactly that.
Posted by: mike | July 16, 2010 12:49 PM
He is supposed to be a leader of the Republican Party yet he cannot even get his words to align with the party's views. While he is certainly entertaining, he is failing to raise the needed funds or provide strategic guidance the way that Dean did for the Dems in 2010.
He needs to step down...but he won't. He is too busy fighting for his job, and he just kicked off his speaking tour. Check out his opinions on a variety of issues.
VERY FUNNY....read about it here:
http://www.dailygoat.com/2010/07/michael-steele-fights-rnc-chairman-job-kicks-2-legit-2-quit-tour/
Posted by: Brian | July 16, 2010 8:01 PM