This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
About a year before Gov. Gary Herbert will be up for re-election, more than six out of 10 Utahns support the job he is doing.
It's the 11th-highest level of support among his colleagues nationally, according to a nationwide survey of the 50 governors around the country.
The series of polls, conducted over several months by Morning Consult, a Washington, D.C.-based political consulting firm, showed Herbert with a 61 percent approval rating, while 26 percent of registered Utah voters disapprove.
It is a solid showing for the Republican governor, who has actually rated higher in recent local polling, but well behind GOP Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, who topped the ranking with a 74 percent approval rating.
At the same time, Herbert fares better than three Republican governors who are or have been vying for the presidency: Ohio Gov. John Kasich had a 55 percent approval rating, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie came in with 40 percent support, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who recently dropped out of the presidential race, had a 35 percent approval rating, second-lowest in the country.
The nation's least-popular governor, according to the survey, is Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, who is disapproved by 65 percent of voters in his state, with just 26 percent approving.
Herbert's campaign is happy with the Utah Republican's rating.
"What it shows me is that the governor, as we've known for some time, is among the most popular governors in the country,"said Marty Carpenter, Herbert's campaign manager. "He enjoys strong support and people like the job he's doing."
Sasha Clark, a spokeswoman for Herbert's Republican opponent, Jonathan Johnson, said her boss's campaign sees it differently. While Herbert has touted himself as the most popular governor in the country with approval ratings in the 70s, this poll is different.
"Obviously, things have changed," Clark said. "Voters are fed up with his tax increases, his indecision on Syrian refugees, his lack of innovation in dealing with state issues and his waffling on creation of a national monument in Utah."
Chris Karpowitz, director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University, said it is difficult to draw conclusions from a single poll. His group conducted a survey in August that showed Herbert with a 74 percent approval rating, but differences in methodology may account for the difference, rather than slipping popularity.
"He's still fairly popular, relatively speaking," Karpowitz said. "It's not at the level where I would start to really sweat. It's certainly still in positive territory, and you look at that ratio of approval to disapproval and he's still looking fairly good."
The Utah poll asked 590 registered voters about their approval of the governor. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Twitter: @RobertGehrke