With recent pay-to-play controversies consuming the headlines, Gov. Bill Richardson’s popularity has dipped below 50 percent in a new poll.
Some 47 percent of New Mexicans said they approve of the job Richardson is doing in the SurveyUSA poll conducted for KOB-TV in Albuquerque. That’s down from 59 percent a month ago.
The survey of 600 adults was conducted Jan. 20 and 21 and has a margin of error of 3.9 percent.
The dip really isn’t surprising. Richardson withdrew his nomination to be commerce secretary earlier this month because of an ongoing federal grand jury investigation into allegations of pay to play in his administration. The headlines have been constant since then, and a separate pay-to-play allegation made in a civil lawsuit was revealed soon thereafter.
Richardson’s approval rating has been close to the 50-percent mark at other times in the last year, and I wrote an analysis in June of what it all meant.