Hickenlooper Leads Ticket

Governor John Hickenlooper is the best positioned candidate for re-election and leads the Democratic ticket in Colorado, with a 48 percent approval and 41 percent disapproval. Senator Mark Udall has nearly a fifth of the public unable to rate him and his approval (41%) and disapproval (40%) is basically tied.

President Obama in the latest PPP auto poll is 10 points in the negative, with a 43 percent approval and 53 percent disapproval. He still represents a liability for local Democrats. Also, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is disapproved by 51 percent of the public, a 12-point negative position. Disapproval of it is high among young voters (55%), Hispanics (57%) and independents (56%). Also, 58 percent of voters believe the ACA hasn’t been successfully implemented.

Floyd Ciruli, a Denver-based independent pollster, said the disaffection of the two groups is an ominous sign for Democrats heading into the mid-term elections this fall.

“That’s very bad news for (Obama). Not only are those groups kind of the shock troops for the success of the law because they’re the ones who need to sign up, they’re losing their support for the president,” Ciruli said. “If we’re talking about young people and Hispanics not showing up this fall, it becomes sort of a valence issue across the board. People realize this is not working out,” Ciruli said.

Ciruli compared widespread disgust with the healthcare law to that of the Bush administration’s handling of the cleanup after Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq War in 2005 and 2006. “The terrible implementation has turned it into like Iraq and also Katrina in a sense that it’s not working, and what good parts there are being overwhelmed by the terrible implementation. We’re in a pre-2006 period now. Definitely this is a disaster,” Ciruli said. (Colorado Observer, 3-19-14)

See:
PPP: Colorado Senate close, Hickenlooper grows lead
The Buzz: Hickenlooper ahead of Republican challengers
Colorado Observer: State’s Hispanics, young adults turn on Obamacare