Rell Campaign Touts Lower Fairfield County Support

Advocate/UCONN Poll Shows Rell More Popular Than Malloy; DeStefano Unknown

A recent poll commissioned by the Stamford Advocate, which shows that Gov. Rell's popularity is strong down in lower Fairfield County, is causing the Rell campaign to suggest that the governor is more popular than Dan Malloy even in Malloy's own backyard. From the article:

The new poll showed Rell more favorable than her Democratic rivals in Greenwich with 79 percent having a very or mostly favorable opinion, and in Norwalk, where 82 percent view her as favorable. Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy, one of the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, holds a 68 percent favorable rating in his home city compared to Rell's 57 percent.
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The poll shows 80 percent or more of respondents in the three communities don't know enough about Democratic gubernatorial hopeful John DeStefano Jr., the mayor of New Haven, to give an favorable or unfavorable rating.
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"I think it's clear, even though this is Mayor Malloy's back yard, Jodi Rell is still extremely powerful and strong politically in the area," [Associate Director of the UConn Center for Survey Research and Analysis George]Pettinico said. "And clearly, New Haven Mayor DeStefano is very unheard of in that part of the state, at least at this point."(Coleman)

This poll isn't that helpful, given that it simply measures how much people like or don't like a candidate rather than whether they'd actually vote for him/her. Malloy is actually more popular than Rell in Stamford, which shouldn't surprise anyone. Still, the Rell campaign, in an email to supporters today, claimed the poll as a victory:

Here’s some interesting news from over the weekend that you may not have seen: a University of Connecticut poll of residents in Stamford, Norwalk and Greenwich commissioned by The Advocate of Stamford that finds Governor Rell more popular than Mayor Malloy in Malloy’s own back yard!

Equally interesting is the lack of support for Mayor DeStefano – so many people said they were so unfamiliar with him that pollsters could not calculate any rating for him. (Poll)

The governor's campaign has rarely mentioned her rivals--this sort of mild swipe at them (especially the part about DeStefano) may be a sign that her campaign is getting more aggressive as the conventions approach.

Sources

Coleman, Tobin. "Poll shows Rell's popularity with residents." Stamford Advocate 9 April, 2006.

"Poll Shows Rell Dominating Malloy in His Own Back Yard!" Jodi Rell '06. Email to Supporters, 11 April, 2006.