The ‘Gubernatorial Power Rankings’

Nate Silver has developed a really interesting “gubernatorial power ranking.”

The assumption behind the rankings is that we can’t judge a governor’s success or popularity simply by their approval rating. For example, one might consider a Republican with a 55% approval rating in a Democratic leaning state to be “more popular” (relatively speaking) than a Democrat with a 63% approval rating in a similarly Democratic state.

Second, as FiveThirtyEight has mentioned before, it’s somewhat easier for a statewide politician to achieve a high approval rating in a small state, where he can meet and greet more of the voters.

Silver’s new index tries to take both of those biases into account. The result is a really fascinating (although imprecise) ranking of gubernatorial popularity.

The winner? Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D-Wyo.), followed by Charlie Crist (R-Fla.).

But there are also a couple interesting revelations. Tim Pawlenty, mentioned so frequently as a Presidential contender, ends up a fairly average governor in terms of popularity. Actually, he’s exactly in the middle of the pack–25th.

Meanwhile, Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose suffering dismal approval ratings, gets a boost for being a Republican in large, Democratic state. He ends up 33rd.

Read the whole list here.

Tags Charlie Crist FiveThirtyEight Florida Nate Silver Person Career Politics Politics of the United States Quotation Tim Pawlenty United States

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