Utah's Gary Herbert among top 10 most popular governors as Chris Christie sinks to bottom

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A new national poll ranks Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, a Republican, as the ninth most popular state chief executive in the nation — with a 64 percent approval rating.

The least popular governor in the nation? New Jersey's Chris Christie, the former Republican presidential candidate, according to Morning Consult, a national polling organization.

Christie, dogged by the "bridgegate" scandal received only 25 percent approval — far below even Alabama's Robert Bentley, who just resigned over a sex scandal and related ethics charges.

The most popular governor in the nation is Massachusetts Republican Charlie Baker.

In separate Senate rankings, No. 1 was Vermont independent Bernie Sanders, the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate. Three-quarters of his Vermont constituents gave Sanders a thumbs-up, even though that approval was down from a staggering 87 percent approval in September.

Utah Sens. Mike Lee and Orrin Hatch fell more or less in the middle of the pack, with Lee chalking up a 56 percent approval and Hatch, 53 percent.

Morning Consult's polling, conducted online among 85,000 registered voters from January through March, shows Herbert is down somewhat from his approval rating in a Salt Lake Tribune-Hinckley Institute of Politics poll after this year's legislative session. That poll showed Herbert with 71 percent approval.

The Tribune-Hinckley poll by Dan Jones & Associates was completed two days before the governor on March 23 signed HB155. The controversial measure would give Utah the toughest drunken-driving law in the nation, with a 0.05 percent blood alcohol content threshold.

Jones, the veteran pollster, said Tuesday that signing the bill cost the governor some popularity points — even though Herbert said he would call a legislative special session to fix problems with the law before it took effect.

"That's what took it down," Jones said of the DUI legislation. The Outdoor Retailer convention pulling its twice-a-year shows from Utah to protest state leaders' stance on public lands and opposition to Bears Ears National Monument was another factor knocking Herbert down a notch or two, Jones said. —