Obama approval ratings low in Ohio

July 1, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By MARC KOVAC

COLUMBUS

Ohioans aren’t happy with Barack Obama’s work as president, U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan or federal health-care reform.

That’s according to a new poll by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, which questioned 1,107 registered voters over the past week, June 22 through 27.

Among respondents, 45 percent said they approved of the president’s actions in office, while 49 percent disapproved.

Forty-eight percent said the United States should not be involved in the war in Afghanistan, versus 46 percent who said the opposite.

And 55 percent of voters still disapprove of the health-care overhaul passed by Congress and signed by the president earlier this year.

“Given Ohio’s key position in the Electoral College, the White House needs to keep a sharp eye on the president’s numbers in the Buckeye State,” said Peter Brown, the Connecticut-based institute’s assistant director, in a prepared statement released to the press. “They aren’t awful, but they aren’t good, either.”

Also in Wednesday’s poll, respondents split closely between Democratic Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher and Republican Rob Portman in their race for U.S. Senate.

The results, Fisher’s 42 percent to Portman’s 40 percent, were statistically unchanged from polls in March and April.

“The Senate race remains far, far from any kind of clear picture, mostly because neither candidate is well known to Ohioans,” Brown said. “Even though Fisher has been a figure in Ohio politics for two decades, 54 percent of voters say they don’t know enough about him to form an opinion. For Portman, 66 percent can’t rate him. With four months until Election Day the Senate race is wide, wide open.”