Right to Work Could Cost Him His Job as Democrats Are Tied With Rick Snyder

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A poll by EPIC/MRA has found that Rick Snyder will be facing a battle for reelection. Snyder has seen his approval rating plummet, and two unknown Democrats are tied with him in the poll.

The latest EPIC/MRA poll revealed that Gov. Snyder’s declining political fortunes can be partially tied to his ramming through of right to work legislation. The governor’s personal favorability rating before right to work was 55%. Since December, it has fallen to 42%. Snyder now has a net (-20) job approval rating in the state. Gov. Snyder has a 38% positive job approval rating, and 58% negative job approval rating.

The signs of an anybody but Snyder feeling among the voters can be seen in the fact that two relatively unknown Democrats are tied with Snyder in the poll.

Despite the fact that Democrats Mark Schauer and former congressman Bart Stupak are pretty much unknown by the electorate, they are both even with Gov. Snyder in the poll. Seventy five percent of those polled did not know who Schauer was, but he leads Snyder 39%-38%. Fifty six percent did not know who Stupak was, but he trailed the governor by a single point, 39%-38%.

A large sign of Snyder’s weakness is that his level of support versus the two Democrats matches his job approval rating. This suggests that Snyder has very little support outside of the Republican Party.

The straw that seems to have broken the camel’s back was governor’s ramming through of right work legislation. The emergency manager law, the tax increases on the middle class and poor, the gutting of the education system, Snyder might have survived all of that, but his underhanded handling of right to work is something that voters may never forget.

Republicans think that the 2010 wave of tea party governors are their future stars, but 3 of the 5 most well known governors from that election could lose in 2014. Rick Scott looks like a dead man walking in Florida. Tom Corbett has lost the support of his own party, and everyone else in Pennsylvania. Rick Snyder is in for the political fight of his life if he wants to win a second term. (The only two high profile survivors from the Republican class of 2010 may be Walker in Wisconsin, and Kasich in Ohio.)

All three of the endangered Republican governors come from blue states where Democrats didn’t show up to vote in 2010. The Democratic Party and Organizing For America are each planning massive get out the vote efforts for 2014. If Democrats show up to vote next November, it won’t be a surprise if these three states who voted for Barack Obama twice elect Democratic governors.

Rick Snyder tried to make a blue state red through an imperial governorship, but in 2014, Big Blue’s (and Sparty’s) Democrats fight back.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

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