Stunning Brown poll: Cicilline approval rating at 17%
March 24th, 2011 at 1:01 pm by Ted Nesi under General Talk
Congressman David Cicilline’s approval rating among Rhode Islanders stands at a stunningly low 17%, a new Brown University poll shows – the latest sign Providence’s financial turmoil is taking a severe toll on the former mayor’s reputation.
Among Rhode Islanders, 3% think Cicilline is doing an “excellent” job and 14% think he’s doing a “good” job, while 23% say he’s doing a “fair” job and 26% say he’s doing a “poor” job, for a 17% approval rating and a 49% disapproval rating. A third of voters say they don’t know enough to offer an opinion.
The vast majority of voters – 78% – say Cicilline bears significant responsibility for Providence’s fiscal crisis, with nearly half – 45% – describing him as “mostly responsible.” But the new congressman can take heart that even more voters say the Providence City Council (57%), the economic downturn (54%) and the General Assembly (49%) are “mostly responsible” for the capital’s problems.
Cicilline’s successor, Mayor Angel Taveras, is doing far better among voters. His approval rating stands at 52% – a point higher than even Sen. Jack Reed, the perennial No. 1 in local surveys, making Taveras the most popular politician in Rhode Island by Brown’s methodology. The pair are statistically tied when the margin of error is taken into account.
Education Commissioner Deborah Gist was the only other official among the 14 included who saw a majority approve of her job performance, at 50%. (I’ve posted all the job ratings at the end of this post.)
Although the public doesn’t oppose every piece of Governor Chafee’s sales tax proposal, some parts of it are almost unanimously unpopular. Here’s Brown (emphasis mine):
The survey found mixed support for some of the proposals, but strong opposition for other parts. For example, 59 percent of respondents said they support adding the sales tax to dry cleaning and 57 support taxing movie and concert tickets. However, 87.5 percent of respondents opposed or strongly opposed adding a 1-percent tax to heating fuel, 80 percent felt similarly about water bills, and 77 percent about textbooks. A slim majority of respondents opposed the proposal to add a 1-percent tax to clothing and shoes (51.7 percent opposed taxing clothing and 50.9 opposed taxing shoes). The poll found that registered voters support the idea of lowering the state sales tax from 7 to 6 percent: 58 percent approved the plan, while 35 percent opposed.
Other big highlights: 54% oppose stripping public-sector workers in Rhode Island of their collective bargaining rights; 76% back Taveras’ plan to close schools and 51% approve of firing Providence’s teachers; 73% oppose tolls on I-95; 95% say the state’s economy is in “not so good” or “poor” shape, more than double the number who describe their personal finances that way; and 61% say their communities did a good job removing snow this winter.
The telephone survey of 425 registered voters in Rhode Island was conducted March 11 to 13, almost two weeks ago. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.7 percentage points, according to Brown.
Here are the job approval ratings among Rhode Islanders for all the politicians tested in the 32-question survey:
- Barack Obama: 44% approve / 56% disapprove / 1% DK
- Lincoln Chafee: 32% approve / 56% disapprove / 12% DK
- Jack Reed: 51% approve / 40% disapprove / 8% DK
- Sheldon Whitehouse: 39% approve / 50% disapprove / 12% DK
- David Cicilline: 17% approve / 49% disapprove / 34% DK
- Jim Langevin: 48% approve / 41% disapprove / 11% DK
- Angel Taveras: 52% approve / 32% disapprove / 16% DK
- Elizabeth Roberts: 34% approve / 42% disapprove / 24% DK
- Peter Kilmartin: 31% approve / 24% disapprove / 45% DK
- Ralph Mollis: 32% approve / 34% disapprove / 34% DK
- Gina Raimondo: 40% approve / 24% disapprove / 36% DK
- Gordon Fox: 24% approve / 45% disapprove / 32% DK
- Teresa Paiva-Weed: 23% approve / 43% disapprove / 34% DK
- Deborah Gist: 50% approve / 33% disapprove / 16% DK
Brown has posted the full poll results here if you want to dig in yourself.
Update: Good catch by commenter Mario, who notes 66% of Rhode Islanders support reducing government employees’ pensions to balance the state budget – the only policy that garners majority support, and one that Chafee and Treasurer Raimondo are studying closely.
Intriguingly, the second-most-supported policy is – wait for it – increasing the state sales tax, though that gets only 41% support, a full 25 points less than cutting pensions.
Update #2: A 17% approval rating for Cicilline is bad, no question. But which Rhode Islanders were polled to come up with that number?
That’s a key question, because as long as he’s a congressman, Cicilline won’t be running on a statewide ballot – he’ll be running in the 1st Congressional District. It could be his approval rating is higher there, which would mean he’s in much better shape politically than it appears in this poll. (Of course, it could also be his approval rating is even lower in the 1st, which would be bad news.)
The same point holds for Taveras. He’s certainly quickly developed a good reputation statewide with that sky-high approval rating – I’m not looking to take away from that. But he’s not the mayor of Rhode Island – he’s the mayor of Providence. What do Providence residents think of him and his policies? That’s a key question for him both politically and when it comes to governing.
Still, after reading this poll you can certainly imagine a path that eventually leads to, say, “U.S. Sen. Angel Taveras.”
Tags: angel taveras, brown university, david cicilline, polls, providence financial crisis, providence financial institutions
Nesi's Notes covers politics and the economy in and around Rhode Island for WPRI.com. (Twitter: 
Wow, 40% would get rid of collective bargaining powers, even though the poll biased the results by calling them “rights.” Impressive. It makes me think there may be hope for this state after all.
Even better, 66% would solve the state’s budget problem by decreasing the pensions of government employees (the only solution to receive a majority), so they are even aware of the fundamental problem and are willing to fix it. You never see that sort of competence on the Federal level, where just about the only thing people seem willing to cut is foreign aid (which they think is 30% of the budget).
Brown’s polls in my experience usually highlight a liberal twist so maybe there have been some changes in the polisci faculty that is broadening the calls to other than registered Democrats.
Ciciline dumped all over Taveras doing what he did. His actions show a complete lack of integrity on his part.
I don’t think Chafee’s 32% approval 56% disapproval rating with less than three months office is anything to write home about either.
There is no way Chafee does anything to the state pension plan that involves cutbacks. His called for 3% increase in worker contributions pales next to the state’s contribution of (I believe) 23%. Name me one private company that contributes $2 for every $1 in workers 401k contributions with no cap.
Really only Reed and Gist are close to where they should be.
Write this down the next Governors race will be between Fung and Taveras. Taveras has the edge because he will get the Hispanic voters the same way 98% of the AA votes chose Obama.
However prior to that there must be a law that keeps the wealthy from financing their own campaigns. The $1.6 million that Chafee ‘loaned himself’ is a mockery of the political system. I am limited by law as to how much I can contribute to a candidate but the candidate can ‘loan’ themselves an unlimited amount?
Fung would certainly be an attractive gubernatorial candidate statewide, but could he get the GOP nomination? He gets the same RINO tag from the hard right that Avedesian does (and Chafee before he bolted the party). Would McKay be willing to clear the primary track for him?
This is why the GOP hasn’t been more successful statewide – trashing any candidate capable of getting Democratic votes as a RINO.
Good points, Rhody. I wonder, though, if Fung might be a little more palatable to the Republican base here than Avedisian simply because he’s not so closely tied to Chafee.
[...] rating. Taveras edges out all other elected officials, even the unflappable Senator Reed, ”making Taveras the most popular politician in Rhode Island by Brown’s methodology” according to WPRI’s Ted [...]
[...] the tax increases. The Projo’s opinion writers are lined up against Chafee. Voters want to slash pensions; unions say they’ve given enough. Anchor Rising is the loyal opposition; Rhode [...]
Yet Cicilline will skate right back into Congress in the next election, mark my words.
Which is why I am outta here. Rhode Island has had decades to improve, reinvent itself, and clean itself up. If it ain’t happened yet, it’s not a gonna.
[...] political fortunes since Providence’s financial crisis took hold – underscored by the 17% approval rating he had in last week’s Brown poll – made national news Tuesday morning in the form of a [...]