Gov. Walker’s approval rating hits new low in national ranking of governors

Just one in four Alaskans approve of the job independent Gov. Bill Walker has done, according to the latest polling produced by the Morning Consult’s running tracker of the approval ratings of the country’s governors.

After making appearances in the Morning Consult’s list of the country’s top governors early in his tenure, Walker’s popularity has continued to slide since he vetoed half the annual permanent fund dividend amid a multi-billion dollar budget deficit. According to the poll, which was conducted between July 1 through Sept. 25 ( survey size and cross tabs were not broken out for Alaska), Walker has stands at a 25 percent approval rating and a 54 percent disapproval rating.

There were 21 percent of Alaskans who were unsure about Walker’s performance, which is the highest the poll has recorded since it began publishing numbers in late 2015.

Walker began his administration with broad approval from Alaskans with a 64 percent ranking registered at the end of his first term in office, according to the Morning Consult’s Q4 2015 ranking. Only 20 percent of Alaskans disapproved of his job at the time.

That continued until Alaskans saw the reduced dividend in their bank accounts in late 2016. The first survey completed completely after the PFD season saw Walker’s approval ratings plummet into the low 40 percent while his disapproval rating reached above the 50 percent mark.

It’s been pretty much the same story since then, as Walker’s numbers have continually slid throughout his tenure.

Alaska Gov. Bill Walker’s Approval Ratings (Morning Consult)

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About Morning Consult

Morning Consult produces quarterly rankings of the country’s governors and U.S. Senators. Its survey of senators, which all came before the bitter confirmation fight over Judge Brett Kavanaugh, actually showed that U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski out ranked U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan. Murkowski’s approval rating sat at 44 percent with a negative rating of 36 percent. Sullivan had just a 42 percent approval rating to a 35 percent disapproval rating.

According to FiveThirtyEight’s pollster ranking, Morning Consult scores a B- grade with a mean-reverted bias of D+0.6.