Alaskans Don’t Think Much Of Sarah Palin
There ought to be no set of voters in the country who know Sarah Palin better than Alaskans. She was, after all, their Governor for just over two years before deciding to quit her job to become a star in reality television and political media, and she’s been something of a force in the Alaska GOP since then, especially in 2010 when her endorsement of Joe Miller led to his surprise victory over Senator Lisa Murkowski in the GOP Senate Primary, although he ended up losing to a Murkowski write-in campaign in that November. A new Public Policy Polling poll, though, shows that Palin’s fellow Alaskans don’t think much of the former Governor:
PPP’s newest Alaska poll finds that voters in the state continue to hold a very dim view of Sarah Palin and any aspirations she might have about running for President in 2016. Only 36% of voters in the state have a favorable opinion of Palin to 55% who view her negatively. Just 20% would like to see her make a bid for the White House, compared to 74% who think she should sit it out. There’s actually almost as many Democrats- 17%- who want Palin to run as there are Republicans- 23%- suggesting there are as many Alaskans who want to see her run for the entertainment value as because they actually want her to be President.
Palin finishes 6th when it comes to who Republican voters want to be the 2016 Presidential candidate in her home state. Ted Cruz leads with 16%, followed by Rand Paul at 15%, Mike Huckabee at 14%, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie at 12%, Palin at 11%, Scott Walker at 7%, Paul Ryan at 6%, and Marco Rubio at 5%. Beyond the lack of enthusiasm for her among Republicans, Palin also has the dubious distinction of being the only potential GOP candidate who would trail Hillary Clinton in a head to head match up- Clinton leads Palin 46/40. The rest of the potential Republican hopefuls all lead Clinton by at least 8 points- Huckabee leads her 47/39, Bush has a 47/38 advantage, Christie is on top 45/34, and Paul has a 50/36 edge.
Of course Palin seems more interested in money making opportunities than seeking elected office again anyway- but her new internet TV channel isn’t likely to get a lot of traction in Alaska- only 4% of voters in the state say they’re interested in buying a subscription to it compared to 89% who say they won’t and 7% who are unsure.
So far at least Palin has stayed out of the ongoing primary to select a Republican candidate to run against Mark Begich in the fall, this notwithstanding the fact that Joe Miller, who she had endorsed in 2010, is one of the three candidates in the race. What polls like this suggest is that, even in Alaska, she’d likely do more harm than good to whomever she endorsed.
The overwhelming majority of her endorsees have crashed and burned this year, so it does seem as if a good word from her turns out to be the kiss of death to anyone’s political ambitions.
There’s an article in the Wall Street Journal (by Ross Epstein) talking about how she’s being courted by Alaska Democrats to support an oil tax increase.
It seems like there’s an article about this every year, as if Alaska has to remind the lower 48 that they don’t like Palin either.
and, she doesn’t think much either.
I was recently in Alaska for a couple of weeks. At one point, we were staying in an inn in Gustavus and happened to be seated with several people who lived elsewhere in Alaska. Just to stir up the sh*t, I asked them what they though of Palin. One man, a business owner in Juneau, turned to me and said:
“Well, we feel like she belongs to the whole country now.”
Certainly establishment GOP types in Alaska don’t like her. ANd Democrats don’t like her.
And for the same reasons. Neither are conservative, and she is.