Strickland starts with high support

By a 45 to 12 percent margin, Ohio voters approve of the job Gov. Ted Strickland is doing in his first days in office, according to Quinnipiac University poll results released today. But 43 percent of the respondents were undecided.

By a 70 to 2 percent margin, voters support spending more money on schools in poorer communities, but have mixed feelings about a proposed constitutional amendment to change the funding system, the independent poll found.

By a 60 to 31 percent margin, Ohio voters said they supported Strickland’s decision on Jan. 19 to temporarily delay three executions while he reviews the cases. White evangelical Christians supported the delay 56 to 36 percent and Republicans backed it by a narrower 49 to 45 percent margin. Democrats supported it by a 65 to 25 percent margin, with 10 percent undecided.

Even so, voters said they support the death penalty, by a 48 to 38 percent margin, instead of life without parole for convicted murderers.

"Strickland is getting good grades from voters so far, although he has not yet tackled the tough questions facing Ohio,'' said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in Hamden, Conn. "Many voters have not yet formed an opinion of him, but among those who have, he benefits by comparison with former Gov. Robert Taft and is doing very well."

If the state’s budget situation requires sacrifice, Ohio voters would, by a 51 to 34 percent margin, rather see state services cut than taxes raised, the poll found, although Democrats are evenly split on that question.

From Jan. 23-28, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,305 Ohio voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points. The university conducts public opinion surveys in Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut as a public service and for research.

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