With Rell Out, Bysiewicz's Chance Grows: Poll

With Gov. M. Jodi Rell out of the running for another term, the gubernatorial field is wide open, and that could be a good thing for Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz.

According to the latest Quinnipiac University poll, Bysiewicz is ahead of the other Democrats who might run in. She trailed Rell by a mere 6 points, 46 to 40, a moot point now that the incumbent is out of the running.

While it’s not a huge surprise that Rell is not running again, the surprise announcement that she will not seek re-election come just days after pollsters made the calls between Nov. 3 and 8, and before anyone had a clue that Rell would make public the decision to bow out.

"Gov. Rell is rebounding from her approval slump. We saw her dropping through the summer and now she is starting back up,” Quinnipiac University Poll Director Douglas Schwartz PhD said in a news release.

He pontificated in the poll, which was released on Tuesday, that if the trend continued, Rell would be hard to beat in the upcoming election.

But, with Monday’s decision, she has decided not to take the chance and find out. Her decision also puts to sleep the possibility that we’d see the all-female Rell v. Bysiewicz general election.

Rell is only the state’s second female governor. Following Ella Grasso, who became the first female governor of the state in 1974, and the first female governor in the country to be elected without having run on the record of a husband who had been governor.  

The poll shows Rell leading, 56 to 26 percent, among independent voters and Bysiewicz leading 74 to 12 percent among Democrats.

The Democratic primary match-up showed Bysiewicz with 26 percent. Ned Lamont, who said last week that he has created an exploratory committee, got 23 percent and Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy with 9 percent.

The poll also showed Rell’s approval up, 64 to 30, now from 59 to 34 percent on Sept. 16.

Most voters said she has strong leadership qualities, is honest and trustworthy and shares their views on issues important to them.

One potential challenge Bysiewicz and Lamont face is that many voters said they don’t know enough about the candidates.  
 
The issue of investigations into the Rell administration's hiring of a university professor, supposedly to streamline state government, seem to be a small in the voting.
 
"Not many voters know about the controversy surrounding the Rell administration's hiring of a professor as a consultant, and few of those who know seem to care," Schwartz said. "Perhaps the issue is too complicated. This is not your typical government corruption case.”
 
The dark spot for Rell was voters’ perceptions of ethics.
 
"Most voters say ethics in the state government has stayed the same or gotten worse on her watch. And since she took office on the heels of John Rowland's conviction, one would hope that ethics would get better,” Schwartz said.

 
 

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