Misery loves company.
So Gov. Sam Brownback can take solace in that New Jersey’s Chris Christie was ranked alongside him as the most unpopular governors in the country.
Morning Consult, a digital media company that focuses on finance and politics, released the findings last week taken from a four-month survey of 200,000 registered voters.
Brownback and Christie have a 25 percent approval rating, while two-thirds of their constituents gave them thumbs down.
Brownback is disliked because of his refusal to redress the dysfunction caused by his tax cut plan of 2012 as well as his veto this spring of the legislature’s vote to expand Medicaid.
Christie’s latest faux pas was to vacation on a state beach that had been closed due to a temporary shutdown of state services.
By contrast, the governors of Maryland and Massachusetts have strong support even though they are Republicans in predominantly Democratic states, including their legislatures.
Their secret?
Charlie Baker, Massachusetts, and Larry Hogan, Maryland, have adopted non-partisan approaches to governing and kept their distance from aligning with President Donald Trump, who lost by big majorities in their states.
But that doesn’t mean they are playing it safe.
Under their leadership, Massachusetts and Maryland have endorsed the expansion of Medicaid and renewed their efforts to develop offshore wind power.
Gov. Baker was one of several Republican governors to state his objections to the U.S. Senate’s health care bill, saying it would cost Massachusetts more than $8 billion by 2025 if enacted.
Where has Gov. Brownback been in this nationwide discussion?
Maryland’s Hogan also signed legislation this spring to ban hydraulic fracking, making it the third state, after New York and Vermont, to do so, and led the state in giving tax incentives to new manufacturers looking to locate in Maryland as well as those existing businesses for any jobs they create.
In essence, they are being good stewards of their land and their people. With those being the goals, Democratic or Republican, everyone wins.
