Give Us Liberty

Rasmussen: Arizona Support for Brewer Soars

Thursday, 20 May 2010

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, following her signing and passionate defense of the state’s new immigration law, now claims 45 percent of the vote in the state’s Republican primary field. That’s a 19-point gain from a month ago and puts her well ahead of all her challengers.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely GOP primary voters in Arizona shows state Treasurer Dean Martin and businessman Buz Mills each attracting 18 percent support. Former state Republican Party Chairman John Munger trails with three percent (3 percent). Three percent (3 percent) prefer some other candidate, and 13 percent are undecided.

Just last month, Brewer held a modest lead with 26 percent of the primary vote, followed by Mills at 18 percent, Munger at 14 percent and Martin with 12 percent. Twenty-four percent (24 percent) were undecided.

In March, Brewer, Martin and Mills were in a three-way tie, each attracting about 20 percent of GOP voters.

Arizona Republicans will pick their gubernatorial nominee in an Aug. 24 primary.

Rasmussen Reports will release the latest numbers pitting the Republican hopefuls against likely Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry Goddard tomorrow. One week after signing the immigration law which Goddard opposes, Brewer posted a 48 percent to 40 percent lead over the Democrat.

The survey of 541 likely Republican primary voters in Arizona was conducted on May 17, 2010, by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4.5 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC.

In late April, 64 percent of Arizona voters supported the new immigration law despite criticism of it by President Barack Obama and others. Among GOP voters, support stood at 87 percent.

Eighty-five percent (85 percent) of likely GOP primary voters now approve of Brewer’s performance as governor, up 31 points from a month ago. Just 15 percent disapprove. This includes 38 percent who strongly approve of the job she is doing and six percent (6 percent) who strongly disapprove.

Brewer is now viewed very favorably by 30 percent of primary voters and very unfavorably by five percent (5 percent).

Twelve percent (12 percent) have a very favorable opinion of Martin, while five percent (5 percent) regard him very unfavorably.

For Mills, very favorables are 13 percent and very unfavorables eight percent (8 percent).

Munger earns very favorables of three percent (3 percent) and very unfavorables of 10 percent.

Brewer is by far the best-known candidate in the race. At this point in a campaign, Rasmussen Reports considers the number of people with strong opinions more significant than the total favorable/unfavorable numbers.

Obama’s criticism of Arizona’s new law has not improved his already low standing with GOP voters here. Only 10 percent approve of the job he is doing as president, while 88 percent disapprove.