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Purple Maine:
Strong Marks for Mills. Trouble for Collins?
Results of the Critical Insights on Maine™
Spring 2019 Tracking Poll
Portland, Maine – May 30, 2019: Maine’s new Governor, Janet Mills, is off to a strong start, with
roughly half of voters in Maine saying they approve of her performance through her first 75 days
in office (47%). While it is still very early in her term, this matches her predecessor’s peak
approval rating across his entire tenure (in his eight years in office, Governor LePage’s approval
rating fluctuated between 31% and 47%).
Results from the same poll of 612 registered Maine voters were not as positive for Senator
Susan Collins, who is up for re-election in 2020. Senator Collins’s overall approval rating has
declined sharply in the past year, reaching an all-time low of 41% (dropping from 51% last fall
and 58% last spring). In fact, for the first time, Mainers are just as likely to disapprove of
Collins’s performance (42%) as approve (41%).
Bob Domine, President of Critical Insights, the Portland-based, non-partisan marketing research
firm that has been conducting the Critical Insights on Maine™ tracking poll since 1996, says,
“If I had to speculate on a single factor underlying this slip in Collins’s approval rating, it would
be her pivotal vote in Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court. Her approval was
both strong and steady prior to her vote last fall, and it has continued to slip since then.”
Critical Insights has just released the results of its Spring 2019 voter poll, which also shows a
decline in voter approval of President Trump’s performance. Currently, 34% of voters in the
state approve of the President’s performance, down from 41%, last fall. Trump’s approval
ratings nationally match his approval ratings here in Maine: 36% of surveyed consumers across
the country approve of the way Donald Trump is doing his job (source: DRI’s bi-weekly
NationWise™ poll of 1,500 Americans, conducted April 19 - 24, 2019).
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Domine added, “While it’s still too early to make predictions about Collins’s or the President’s
chances in next year’s elections, we will measure voter sentiment several times leading up to
the election for any telling signs.”
Approval ratings of most other policymakers have held steady or improved since last fall:
• Almost six out of ten voters approve of Senator King’s performance in office (57%, vs.
52% last fall).
• Almost half of Chellie Pingree’s constituents (46%) approve of her job performance,
holding steady from last fall (when 43% approved).
• Four out of ten constituents approve of new representative Jared Golden’s performance
so far (38%). Even though he was the first member of Congress elected by ranked
choice voting and is serving in a traditionally conservative district, the Democrat’s
approval rating is on par with Bruce Poliquin’s approval rating – his Republican
predecessor – when he left office (36%).
• Four out of ten approve of the performance of the current state legislature overall (39%),
an increase since last fall (33%).
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The spring 2019 Critical Insights on Maine™ tracking poll was conducted between March 16
and April 1, 2019. It included 612 completed surveys of registered voters (half surveyed by
phone; half surveyed online). It has a +/- 3.9 percentage point sampling error at the 95%
confidence level.
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****** About the NationWise™ Survey ******
The NationWise™ survey is fielded every two weeks. Each wave of the survey includes at
least 1,500 American adults, reflecting the demographics of the U.S. population. As an omnibus
survey, NationWise™ offers a convenient way to pose questions to American consumers
throughout the year. The NationWise™ survey results shown here were collected April 19-24,
2019. These results have a +/- 2.5 percentage point sampling error at the 95% confidence
level.
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