Dole's Approval Rating: up, down and all around

Elizabeth Dole’s polling is all over the map. A DSCC poll (Garin-Hart-Yang) released on February 28 showed Senator Dole with major weaknesses. Only 49% of North Carolinians described her performance as excellent or good. President Bush’s net approval was 34%. And only 35% said they were sure to reelect Dole in 2008.

Now comes a poll from Dole’s campaign conducted Jan van Lohuizen, President Bush’s personal pollster. It says Dole has a 63-25 job approval rating.

So where is she really? Our numbers are much closer to the DSCC figures. Our latest approval rating for Dole, taken the third week of February, was 43-31. The last Survey USA approval rating for Dole was 52-40, but that was back in November.

I’d love to get my hands on copies of both the DSCC and Dole’s polling. My guess is that Democrats think they can beat Dole, but don’t have a candidate polling anywhere near her and are afraid to show the numbers, while the Republicans are also worried that Dole is vulnerable. Therefore both are holding their poll results close to the vest.

Who else is discussing this? Check out:
The Fix Steals My Title
How Vulnerable is Dole?