SurveyUSA Releases Ratings for All 50 Governors; North Dakota's Hoeven Is First, Ohio's Taft Last.

VERONA, N.J. -- North Dakota Governor John Hoeven has the highest approval rating of any Governor in the United States and Ohio Governor Bob Taft has the lowest, according to 50 separate but concurrent statewide public opinion polls conducted by SurveyUSA for its media clients across the country.

600 adults in each of the 50 states were interviewed by telephone May 6 through May 8. Approval rating questions were asked identically in all 50 states.

"Never before have Americans been able to evaluate their Governor's performance in the context of all other Governors," says Jay H. Leve, Editor of SurveyUSA. "Now for the first time, we will learn whether Governor ratings rise and fall as a group, or move independently of each other."

Complete Approval Ratings, including links to the results of 50 separately conducted opinion polls, with full crosstabs and statements of methodology, are available here:

http://www.surveyusa.com/50governorsrated051005.htm

Top 10 Governors as of May 10, 2005:

      State             Governor              Approval
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  1   North Dakota      John Hoeven              71%
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  2   South Dakota      Mike Rounds              70%
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  3   Wyoming           Dave Freudenthal         67%
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  4   Connecticut       Jodi Rell                66%
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  5   Utah              Jon Huntsman             64%
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  6   West Virginia     Joe Manchin              64%
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  7   Vermont           Jim Douglas              60%
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  8   Arizona           Janet Napolitano         59%
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  9   Hawaii            Linda Lingle             59%
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 10   Oklahoma          Brad Henry               59%
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Bottom 10 Governors as of May 10, 2005:

      State             Governor              Approval
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 41   Alabama           Robert Riley             36%
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 42   Illinois          Rod Blagojevich          36%
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 43   Kentucky          Ernie Fletcher           36%
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 44   Michigan          Jennifer Granholm        36%
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 45   New York          George Pataki            36%
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 46   Oregon            Ted Kulongoski           36%
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 47   Washington        Christine Gregoire       34%
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 48   Missouri          Matt Blunt               33%
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 49   Alaska            Frank Murkowski          27%
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 50   Ohio              Bob Taft                 19%
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Average approval for all 50 Governors combined: 48%.

--The 28 Governors above 48% are Above Average.

--The 21 Governors below 48% are Below Average.

Little difference by Party:

--Average approval for the 28 Republican Governors: 47.9%.

--Average approval for the 22 Democratic Governors: 49.0%.

About SurveyUSA:

SurveyUSA of Verona NJ is the nation's largest independent public opinion pollster, with 50 TV stations under long-term exclusive contract. Millions of Americans see the results of SurveyUSA research every night on their local TV news. SurveyUSA poll results can be seen on WABC, KABC, WCAU, WBZ, KPIX, KXAS, WXIA, WDIV, KPRC, KING, WFLA, KPNX, WKYC, WFOR, KUSA, KXTV, WKMG, KSDK, WMAR, KATU, WXIN, KGTV, WBTV, WTVD, WCPO, KSL, WOAI, WZZM, WPTV, KFOR, WGRZ, WLNE, WHAS, KVBC, WTLV, WNEP, KEYE, WRGB, KTHV, WBIR, KJRH, WKRG, KWCH, WSLS, WHO, WCSH, KHQ and WCSC. SurveyUSA(R) is Proud to Be America's Pollster(R).