Most popular Utah politician?

Surprise — Demo Matheson beats out GOP heavyweights

So, who is the most popular politician in heavily Republican Utah?

Maybe President Bush? Utahns have twice given him his highest percentage victories among the 50 states.

How about U.S. Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett? They've always been popular here.

Or Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.? Utahns always seem to like their governors.

Nope. While those GOP officeholders get decent approval ratings in a new Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll, Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson gets the highest job approval ratings from his constituents among the whole bunch.

Has one of the reddest states in the Union sprung a blue leak? What is going on here?

"Matheson is just very popular among his 2nd District constituents," says pollster Dan Jones, who conducted the Nov. 10-12 survey for the newspaper and TV station.

Said Matheson: "I've always said Utahns look at the individual, not the party label. I've worked very hard, as has all of my office staff. We believe we put Utah first in everything we do."

But aside from Matheson's popularity, "Bush is dragging down every Republican officeholder in the nation, even here," said Jones, who has polled in Utah for 30 years and is a professor of political science at the University of Utah.

Bush has hit record-low job approval ratings across the nation, getting only a 37 or 38 percent approval rating in national polls.

The president remains popular in Utah, however, getting a 61 percent approval rating in Jones' latest poll. But that is still 13 percentage points lower than a Jones poll conducted in June this year.

Matheson's numbers, however, especially for a Democrat, are astronomic — a 78 percent approval rating.

Only 12 percent of 2nd District residents disapprove of the job Matheson is doing in the U.S. House. Ten percent didn't have an opinion.

Jones polled 400 adults across the state on the statewide offices, like president, U.S. Senate and governor, for a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent. He polled around 140 residents in each of the three congressional districts, a margin of error of around 8 percent.

Huntsman is close to Matheson — 76 percent of Utahns approve of the governor's job performance.

Hatch and Bennett are both at 67 percent approval; 3rd District Rep. Chris Cannon has 50 percent approval; and 1st District Rep. Rob Bishop has 49 percent.

First elected in 2002, Bishop is the Utah delegation's invisible man. Jones found that 37 percent of his constituents don't know what kind of a job he's doing.

"Jim Hansen used to say that in Congress there are work horses and show horses. Rob is a work horse, just like Jim was, and doesn't worry too much about poll numbers or popularity," said Bishop spokesman Scott Parker. "There are plenty of show horses here in D.C., but Rob is definitely more interested in getting things done than in getting credit."

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