DAYTON'S POLL NUMBERS DROP 15 POINTS IN ONE YEAR

Approval rates for Dayton, Coleman drop

Minnesota Sens. Mark Dayton and Norm Coleman both took hits to their public image in the past year, with their job approval ratings falling below 50 percent, according to the latest Minnesota Poll.

Dayton, a Democrat who's up for reelection next year, took the heaviest blow: His approval rating declined by 15 points in a year, from 58 percent to 43 percent. The approval rating for Coleman, who just began his third year in office, fell by 7 points, from 54 to 47 percent.

Dayton's job approval decreased among all categories of Minnesotans, grouped by age, education, income, party and ideology, with the largest drop among men -- down 27 points -- and 18- to 24-year-olds -- down 31 points.

Coleman's biggest declines came among 25- to 34-year-olds -- down by 19 points -- and those living in the seven-county metropolitan region -- down by 13 points."I don't like either one of them," said Joe Cornet, 62, of Vadnais Heights, one of the 832 Minnesotans who took part in the poll. Of Coleman, he said: "[President] Bush tells him to jump, and he says, 'How high?' I don't think he represents anybody in Minnesota." Of Dayton, he said: "I just don't know where the guy is coming from."

The poll represents a sharp turnaround for both senators, who had healthy increases in their approval ratings the last time their performance was measured in a Minnesota Poll, in January 2004. At that time, both senators broke above the 50 percent mark for the first time.

Coleman, who was attending a Republican retreat in West Virginia, was unavailable for comment. But Erich Mische, his chief of staff, said the results would do nothing to affect the way in which Coleman approaches the job.

"A poll is a poll a poll," Mische said. "The numbers aren't surprising. We've just come off an incredibly high-profile presidential campaign ... in a state where the race was very close" and the electorate was polarized.

Dayton in spotlight

Dayton expressed disappointment with the results and said he must "do a better job of communicating what I'm doing here in Washington." He said it's hard to speculate what happened.

"It's been a very politically controversial year," Dayton said. "I made controversial decisions in terms of closing my office to protect my staff and even challenging the confirmation of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. ... I would believe that they are part of the explanation, but I can't know for sure."

The poll, which was conducted from Sunday, Jan. 23, through Wednesday, came during a week in which Dayton was in the headlines. First, Rep. Gil Gutknecht, R-Minn., announced that he was considering a run against Dayton, who is regarded by the Cook Political Report as the most vulnerable Senate Democrat seeking reelection next year.

Then Dayton gave a highly publicized speech on the Senate floor, accusing Rice of lying to the American people and Congress while making the case for war against Iraq in 2002. In his Tuesday speech, Dayton said his vote against Rice was "a statement that this administration's lying must stop now."

Dayton, who routinely accuses the Bush administration of making false statements, received national -- even worldwide -- attention after making his remarks as part of such a high-profile debate. His office was flooded with more than 4,000 e-mails and phone calls, most of them positive, and Dayton was featured on Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show."

Republicans accused Dayton of trying to raise money for his reelection campaign by raising a ruckus. When Bush was asked at a news conference about Dayton's remark, the president replied: "There are 99 senators other than that person and I'm looking forward to working with as many members as I can."

In interviews after the poll was conducted, some of the respondents made reference to Dayton's criticism of Rice."I don't think that was right," said Cornet, who normally votes Democratic. Clarence Sutton, 84, a Republican from Gaylord, called Dayton "a disgrace to the state of Minnesota" and said that his attack on Rice was "rotten representation for the state of Minnesota."

But Barb Monroe, 45, a Democrat from Cannon Falls, said that she was impressed with Dayton and that she admired him for "staying with his convictions." "He's perhaps not eloquent, but I believe he has the best intentions of the people back in Minnesota who don't have a voice," she said.

The poll also found rising disapproval ratings for both Coleman and Dayton and that large numbers of Minnesotans have yet to form any opinion of their senators. While 24 percent disapprove of Dayton's performance, a third of his constituents said they don't have an opinion. Coleman had a slightly higher disapproval rating -- 27 percent -- while about a quarter -- 26 percent -- said they had no opinion of him.

Dayton's approval rating was down even among his fellow DFLers and liberals, by 10 points. Dayton, a fifth-year senator who defeated then-incumbent Republican Rod Grams, finds himself in much the same position as Grams, who had an identical 43 percent approval rating in January of 2000.

Like Dayton now, Grams then was a question mark to a large number of Minnesota voters -- 28 percent had no opinion of him. Grams never got that number below 25 percent and was soundly defeated. That could suggest that Dayton's reelection might depend on his ability to make an impression on the one-third of Minnesotans who have yet to form an opinion of him. "Very definitely -- and reaching them before my opposition does," said Dayton.

He said he believes that he's "on the side of the best interests of the people of Minnesota" on issues such as pressing the Bush administration for "better answers to the situation in Iraq" and fighting for more federal aid to pay for prescription drugs for senior citizens and to educate disabled children: "I need to do a better job of explaining that to people."

Many respondents who gave Coleman poor marks said they don't trust him, citing his decision to leave the DFL Party before he ran as a Republican for governor in 1998.

"To me, he seems very wishy-washy. I think it's hard to switch parties and flip-flop," said Angela Dougherty, 43, an insurance agent from Duluth. She also recalled that Coleman last year gave a speech on the Senate floor in which he mistakenly said that Duluth was on the shores of Lake Erie: "He didn't know where Duluth was."

Liz Klages, 45, a political science professor from Minneapolis who disapproved of Coleman's performance, called Coleman's role in the investigation of the United Nations oil-for-food program "abominable." And she disliked that the senator had promised to vote against oil drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, only to say later that he might be open to the idea. "He's up and coming in the Republican Party, which generally annoys me," Klages said.

Sutton, the Gaylord Republican who used to be a Democrat, said he was proud of Coleman's work, especially in helping expose fraud in the U.N. food program: "He speaks what he wants to say and he knows exactly what he's doing."

Democrat Robert Hansen, 78, a retired farmer from Worthington, said that neither senator can match up with former Democratic Sen. Hubert Humphrey.

"They're both a pair of ... Slick Willies," he said. "These guys who get voted into office, they promise you one thing and, when they get in office, they do just the opposite. ... At least Humphrey did something. That's more than these [guys] are doing."

And there was the rare respondent, such as 33-year-old Becky Carlson of Circle Pines, who said both senators are doing a good job.

Carlson said that Coleman "turned St. Paul completely around" as the city's mayor and "my assumption is that he'd be doing the same in Congress." And while she knew little about Dayton, other than that he had temporarily closed his office, she said: "If something bad isn't being portrayed about them, I assume they're doing their job." Source: Star Tribune, January 31, 2005