by Tony Petrangelo

May 22, 2013, 9:00 AM

Al Franken holds steady

Back in January, Public Policy Polling released their survey robots on Minnesota. Four months later they’re back. The first release of data from them concerns Al Franken’s job approval numbers. Short version: they haven’t budged since January.

PPP (5/21, 1/22 in parenthesis):

Do you approve or disapprove of Senator Al Franken’s job performance?
Approve 51 (52)
Disapprove 42 (41)
Not sure 7 (7)
(MoE: ±3.7%)

Those numbers have been stable for awhile now. Back in September of 2012 PPP had him at a 49-42 spread. And in June of that same year they had him at 50-36.

Al Franken has spent the last calender year hovering right around the 50% approval mark. That’s certainly not Amy Klobuchar territory, but for an incumbent Senator who won by an incredibly close margin the first time around, 50% approval has sure got to feel like 60%.

Here’s the ballot tests that PPP did, keep in mind though, none of these people are declared candidates… yet.

PPP (5/21, 1/22 in parenthesis):

Al Franken (D-inc) 55 (54)
Michele Bachmann (R) 38 (40)
Undecided 7 (7)

Al Franken (D-inc) 55
Jason Lewis (R) 37
Undecided 9

Al Franken (D-inc) 51
Mike McFadden (R) 36
Undecided 13

Al Franken (D-inc) 52
Julianne Ortman (R) 35
Undecided 14

Al Franken (D-inc) 52
Julie Rosen (R) 36
Undecided 12

Al Franken (D-inc) 51
Rich Stanek (R) 36
Undecided 13
(MoE: ±3.7%)

Al Franken is over 50% against everyone that PPP matched him up against. And while he’s not in quite the dominate position Amy Klobuchar was at this point of the cycle, he’s still in a very advantageous position.

Of course, among the names that PPP tested Franken against, Michele Bachmann is the only one that Minnesotan’s really have an opinion about. The other five are mostly unknown, but with the exception of Jason Lewis, they are good proxies for the caliber of candidate that the GOP can only hope to land at this point.

Jason Lewis and for that matter Michele Bachmann, are good proxies for the caliber of candidate that Al Franken is hoping to land.

Speaking of Michele Bachmann, I think the juxtaposition of these two questions in the poll is too good to pass up (and yes, they are different questions, but they are not that different of questions):

PPP (5/21, 1/22 in parenthesis):

Do you approve or disapprove of Senator Amy Klobuchar’s job performance?
Approve 61 (65)
Disapprove 28 (25)
Not sure 11 (10)

Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Michele Bachmann?
Favorable 34 (35)
Unfavorable 60 (59)
Not sure 7 (6)
(MoE: ±3.7%)