Washington State Public Opinion

Strategic Vision just released a poll on the state of public opinion here in the Evergreen State. The most interesting item from this poll is Dino Rossi's numbers in head-to-head matchups, one against Gov. Gregoire and the other against Sen. Cantwell, who is up for reelection next year. If the 2008 gubernatorial election were held today Rossi would trounce the governor by about twenty points and if it were '06 he would convincingly beat Sen. Cantwell by twelve. Furthermore, Rossi is not only the only potential GOP candidate who is beating Sen. Cantwell right now, but he is also the only one who the senator is not receiving fifty percent of the vote against. This emphasizes the pressure that is on state Republicans to convince Rossi to run and take advantage of the senator's soft approval numbers next year( her Job Approval is at 48%), for though there are other viable potential candidates on the GOP side, former congresswoman Jennifer Dunn for example, Rossi is far and away the best candidate available and has the best chance of unseating Washington's junior senator in '06.

Hat Tip: Sound Politics

UPDATE (10:53 6/14/05): Survey USA just released a batch of approval ratings for every United States senator and in that poll Sen. Cantwell has a 55-30% approval rating, seven points higher than her approval in the Strategic Vision poll I commented on above. If you average the two polls together her approval is 51.5%, not great but strong enough to give her the advantage against whomever the Republican nominee will be in '06, with the exception of Dino Rossi, who is the most popular political figure within the state right now.

Hat Tip: Polipundit