GOVERNOR'S APPROVAL RATING RISES

Gov. Gary Johnson's popularity has rebounded some, but it's still not as
high as it was before he launched a national push to legalize marijuana and
change other drug laws, a Journal poll found.

"Johnson's favorability rating is back up above his unfavorability rating,"
said Brian Sanderoff of Research and Polling Inc., which conducted the poll.

"The bad news for the governor is less than half of the registered voters
in New Mexico approve of his job performance," Sanderoff said.

Forty-six percent of the New Mexico voters surveyed statewide said that,
generally speaking, they approved of the Republican governor's job performance.

That's up 11 percentage points from a Journal poll in March, but it's still
down from earlier polls in which a majority of voters approved of Johnson's
job performance.

Forty-one percent of voters surveyed in the latest Journal poll said they
disapproved of Johnson's job performance, while 13 percent were undecided
or had mixed feelings.

The March poll found Johnson's popularity had plummeted nearly 20 points
over the previous year and that, for the first time since he took office in
1995, his disapproval rating had risen above his approval rating.

Johnson's approval rating dropped from 54 percent in April 1999 to 35
percent in March 2000.

Johnson, among others, attributed his nose dive in the March poll to his
controversial and widely publicized national push to legalize drugs.
Johnson, who is nearing the midway point of his second four-year term as
the state's chief executive officer, has said this is his last elective office.

"There's little reason to doubt that the governor's plummeting approval
rating (in March) was attributable to his position on drug reform and all
the local, state and national publicity he received," Sanderoff said.

In the March survey, 68 percent of registered voters polled said Johnson's
proposal that drugs such as marijuana and heroin should be legal was a bad
idea.

Johnson has since backed off legalizing heroin. Instead, he now advocates
treatment and prevention programs for heroin addicts in place of jail.

The latest poll indicates Johnson's views on drug reform probably still
hurt him among voters in his own political party, Sanderoff said.

"One in four Republicans disapprove of Governor Johnson's job performance,
which was not the case in past years," Sanderoff said. "But, overall, he's
on the rise again."

Fifty-five percent of Republican voters polled in the new survey said they
approved of Johnson's job performance, while 24 percent disapproved and 21
percent were undecided.

Fifty-three percent of Democratic voters surveyed said they disapproved of
Johnson's job performance, while 38 percent approved. Nine percent were
undecided or had mixed feelings.

Johnson's actions during the Cerro Grande Fire in Los Alamos during May
might have helped repair his popularity ratings, Sanderoff said.

Johnson was widely praised for remaining on the scene in Los Alamos for 55
straight hours during the blaze, which destroyed the homes of 400 families
and individuals.

"He was really at the forefront of the Los Alamos fires and received a lot
of favorable publicity for that," Sanderoff said. "And perhaps some people
have become more accustomed to his stance on drug reform and are seeing
past that one issue and cutting him some slack."

Johnson's popularity in the latest poll was highest among younger voters
and worst among older voters: 59 percent of voters between the age of 18
and 34 approved of his job performance, while 55 percent of those 65 and
older disapproved.

Fifty-one percent of Hispanics disapproved of Johnson's job performance,
while 35 percent approved. Among Anglos, 50 percent approved and 37 percent
disapproved.

The Journal poll was conducted Sept. 7-13 and is based on telephone
interviews with 411 registered voters statewide who said they were likely
to vote in the Nov. 7 general election. The survey results have a margin of
error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.