OP-ED | The Governors’ Guide to Popularity
by Susan Bigelow | Sep 16, 2011 11:33am
(7) Comments | Commenting has expired
Posted to: Opinion
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has failed at being popular again. I feel sorry for him; after all, the guy’s been working his tail off trying to find sensible ways to deal with state employee unions, balancing the budget, and single-handedly re-connecting your power after Hurricane Irene, but all he has to show for it is the same old abysmal approval rating. He must be wondering at this point what it takes for people around here to like him. It used to be that extracting concessions from unions and being visibly in charge during a major storm translated into a bounce in the polls, but for Malloy this is just not the case.
I figured I’d help him out. Here’s a few constructive tips to help Malloy become a more popular governor, and the sort of guy Democrats will start inviting to brunches in Iowa.
Follow someone unpopular – Malloy’s biggest mistake so far has been succeeding Jodi Rell in office. Rell left with an approval rating that any politician who had spent six listless years in office would envy, which came in part because she was the breath of fresh air after John Rowland was chased from office. It doesn’t always work out, though: ask former New York Gov. David Paterson or President Barack Obama.
Perhaps Malloy can leave the state for a while and put, say, someone even less popular than he is in charge while he’s gone. Then when he returns, everyone will be glad to see him! The challenge? Finding someone less popular.
Be mean and overbearing – Americans seem to love politicians who push us around, insult their enemies, and generally act like spoiled, self-entitled brats. Malloy made some headway here when he described Ron Paul as an “idiot” on national TV, but he’s missed a lot of other opportunities. He’s persisted in trying to be friendly with state employee unions who clearly despise him, for example, when he could be out there calling them lazy, shiftless bloodsuckers. This country is in a mean mood these days, and we all appreciate it when our leaders help us take our aggression out on people we don’t like.
There may be some limits to being pompous and partisan, though: Republican star Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey’s approval rating isn’t much better than Malloy’s these days.
Make a better first impression – Gov. Andrew Cuomo is a popular guy in part because one of the first things he did as governor of New York was to close a huge budget gap without raising taxes. Malloy’s first impression as governor was a budget that called for “shared sacrifice,” which meant taxes, spending cuts, and union givebacks. Only the first has registered with voters.
New York and Connecticut are different states that faced different situations, and New York generally has higher taxes than Connecticut even now, but Malloy still should have known better. Most voters are perfectly happy to cut the pay of state workers, close schools, let roads deteriorate, abandon social services entirely, and leave the cities to rot, but they’ll storm the barricades if they’re forced to pay an extra buck or two to fill up the SUV. After all, people are hurting!
Malloy can perform brilliantly from here on out, but he’ll never convince huge blocks of voters that he’s anything more than some jerk who took more of their money.
Get lucky – Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell is popular in part because Virginia’s unemployment rate is a cool 6 percent; well below the national average and Connecticut’s 9.1 percent. Virginia does well because their economy is heavily dependent on the always-expanding federal government (check out the pattern in this map for a nice illustration of this). It must be nice to be a small-government conservative who benefits from big government, and to be governor of a state that’s doing well during a national economic crisis. No wonder some people think he should run for president; maybe that kind of good fortune is contagious.
Try being folksy – It seems to work for Rick Perry, whose appeal is simultaneously baffling and instantly understandable. Voters like politicians who remind them of their own most cherished conceptions of themselves. In our dreams, all Americans are down-home, hardworking, and simple, and we all have a ranch or at least a truck. Malloy comes across as smart, prickly, energetic, and somewhat cranky. Maybe his problem is that he reminds us of who we actually are, instead of who we’d like to be.
Popularity in Connecticut is a strange thing. Former Gov. M. Jodi Rell got a much better rating for doing an awful lot less, after all. Even Sen. Joe Lieberman’s approval rating is better than Malloy’s these days. What do we really want from our leaders, anyway? I don’t think we have any idea. To his credit, Gov. Malloy seems to be able to do his job despite our confusion.
Susan Bigelow is the former owner of CTLocalPolitics. She lives in Enfield with her wife and cats.
Tags: poll, popularity, Dannel Malloy, voters, Jodi Rell, Barack Obama, Andrew Cuomo, Chris Christie, David Paterson, Rick Perry
(7) Comments
posted by: ... | September 16, 2011 7:03pm
He is gaining in popularity though. 11% of those polled still don’t have a clear idea yet 8 months in. He’s gained equal increments on the approval & disapproval ratings since entering office.
My advice to being a popular Gov.: Don’t be. I’d rather have a Gov. gain just solidified, modest ratings over time (60/40, 55/45, etc.) and get things done in a truly balanced way rather than be someone who is reaching for popularity by doing little to nothing controversial/new/effective.
posted by: Upset.Citizen | September 17, 2011 11:41am
That’s all too much honest work for this guy. He prefers the Stalin approach! Give people a choice: Sign here or you’re laid off, then fire up the propaganda machine and say it was respectful and the people wanted to sign.
I hope Dan can read all this or find someone who will read it for him and tell him what they think it means!
Dan’s forgetting the reason he got elected. It’s not because we wanted him, it was because we didn’t want the other guy!
CPTV showed a documentary on Ella Grasso and how she handled the blizzard. Malloy’s handling of the tropical storm was cookie cutter to that script, except the scale was a fraction of what she had on her hands! Watch it online to realize how foolish he looked / acted! He lacks the sincerity she had!
He calls it ‘shared’ sacrifice - raise taxes, file a fake budget, add 3 years to employees sentences (raise retirement age), release prisoners / reduce the number of things people go to jail for (drug possession), close prisons, layoff cops. (Not to interrupt myself, but I’m not feeling very safe, while I’m having to work more years when I’m old there will be more criminals on the street robbing my house when I’m not there and less cops to keep things safe… NOT GOOD! Where was I? Oh yes…) While all these things are being done to bring in more money and supposedly save money he is letting the rich skate, mega-businesses are getting hundreds of millions for nothing, building buss-ways to nowhere, and all the managers and political appointees / friends of Dan / friends of friends of Dan / etc. all get more money for nothing while lacking knowledge and experience. (I know I missed a bunch, but this was supposed to be a summation of the last 9 months! Can you imagine what the next 3 years 3 months will bring?) In his defense he did use the word ‘shared’ not ‘equal’. A 99% / 1% split can be considered shared… I do all the work and my manager takes all the credit is usually what is meant by a shared project… I get it.
Going back to Stalin, oops, I mean Malloy… His biggest mistake was that he alienated the State Police as much as everyone else. Stalin used his security forces to ensure his popularity at the poles. Malloy will not be able to put guns to our heads when we VOTE FOR THE OTHER GUY in 2014!
posted by: GoatBoyPHD | September 17, 2011 5:09pm
The only people thinking Malloy was tough on anything are Progressives.
ALl he did was change the mixture of feed in the trough.
posted by: ... | September 18, 2011 3:46pm
GoatboyPHD: You’re right. All he did was create a new mixture. A new diet for CT’s state government that can lead it towards being leaner and more efficient in the coming years and decade.
posted by: GoatBoyPHD | September 18, 2011 11:49pm
I’m not sure SEBAC is ready to give Dan Malloy the ultimate accolade for his handling of the contract and hurricane power outages. Dan’s got some stiff competition from overseas in the disaster management approval rating department.
>> China clones castrated quake hero pig <<
http://tinyurl.com/3v5ekku
posted by: ASTANVET | September 19, 2011 9:02pm
I’ve been laying off posting for a while, but can’t help myself. The GOV is not doing a bad job, he’s doing a horrible job. While i can appreciate the tough stance he took with organized labor (public sector), his refusal to look at actual measures that could fix the budget is unforgivable. I am looking for an elected official with pragmatic realism that is vacant from today’s politics. While Susan’s article is full of cool quippy comments on being mean, is it Mean to say we can’t afford one thing, or to choose one program over another? Lets be real for a second. Why have BS numbers in your budget, build in a billion dollar surplus, raise taxes in a horrible economy for what?? some ideological political protracted game like we have in Washington??? Until you can come to the table with some welfare reform, medicare reform, health care reform, tort reform, elimination of restrictions on the private sector, and some incentives for people to invest in CT again, you’re just playing a game. The costs of this game come at the expense of our children. I for one am tired of the nonsensical spending - paying the CSP to sit on the side of the road playing angry birds for a construction job to run up their OT - repeal that statute! I’m tired of the excessive waste in the CT college system and the fraud they commit at our flagship university. The overblown salaries of management exempt employees, the state cars, the administrative staffs, and the gaul to absolutely know that they operate with impunity by using our tax dollars to buy their next vote. WHAT DID THE GOVERNMENT EVER DO TO EARN OUR DOLLARS! Malloy’s approval is in the toilet because he, like so many others are just a bunch of hot air who is leaching off productive citizens. The only “JOBS” program they are interested in is their own.
posted by: Careful | September 19, 2011 9:21pm
Suisan Bigelow: Gov. Malloy is probably his own biggest roadblock to become a more popular Governor. He has a stiff, and sometimes callous demeanor—and talks too fast, without smiling. He appears to be in pain—- when he is making an address.
Perhaps he tries too hard, in coming across as a professional speaker? He may have spent too much time speaking as a serious prosecutor in court?
It’s very difficult, if not impossible, however, to try to alter your personality.