Midwest Voices

Barb Shelly

The Kansas City Star

The latest numbers from Public Policy Polling are in, and they’re not going to cause Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon any sleepless nights.

You can read it all here, but the bottom line is that Nixon, a Democrat, leads Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder 50-31 in a hypothetical contest, and the GOP is running out of time to come up with a heavy hitter to carry the banner.

Kinder, of course, is flailing, thanks to a battery of self-inflicted wounds, the deepest being his visits to a nightclub featuring “pantless parties” and his apparent flirtation with a bartender there who is a former Penthouse “Pet of the Month.”

One interesting finding is that Kinder polls only slightly better than the unknown Bill Randles, a lawyer from the Kansas City area who has declared his candidacy. Another is that former Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Talent polls better than former Gov. Matt Blunt. “

Says PPP: “Missourians haven’t warmed back up to Blunt too much since he left office — only 32 percent see him favorably to 44 percent with an unfavorable one.”

About Nixon, the pollsters have this to say:

Nixon continues to be one of the more popular Governors in the country with a 51 percent approval rating to 30 percent of voters who disapprove. He still has unusually weak numbers with Democrats (58/21) but that’s not a major sign for concern because they generally plan to vote for him whether they actually like him or not. He has stellar numbers with independents at 57/26 and leads Kinder with them by 26 points at 51/25. Even with Republicans he comes close to breaking even at 40/42 approval.

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