LANSING – Voters hold former President George W. Bush and former Governor Jennifer Granholm responsible for the state of Michigan’s economy, not President Barack Obama, nor Governor Rick Snyder, according to a Gongwer News Service poll.

The poll showed that 40 percent blamed Granholm, 34 percent blamed Bush, 7 percent blamed Obama and just 5 percent blamed Snyder.

What was most telling was that Republicans – by far – considered Granholm responsible for the state’s economic condition, not Obama. Among Republicans, 68 percent faulted Granholm while 11 percent blamed Obama.

“That does seem surprising, especially given the very negative numbers in the very same poll for President Obama and Obama losing to Romney,” EPIC/MRA President Bernie Porn said.

Snyder, perhaps not entirely surprisingly since he has been in office for less than a year, escaped blame from Democrats, who pointed the finger at Bush. Some 68 percent faulted Bush compared to just 7 percent for Snyder. Granholm actually registered more strongly for Democrats with 12 percent holding her most responsible.

Independents split with 34 percent blaming Granholm, 30 percent Bush, 9 percent Obama and 6 percent Snyder.

Porn said it also surprised him to see more voters now blame Granholm for Michigan’s economy than Bush because the opposite was the case in many previous surveys.

There was also a distinct pattern based on age in the survey. Voters 55 and younger blamed Granholm while those 56 and older blamed Bush.

Men by a 43-33 margin blamed Granholm more than Bush while women were split with 37 percent faulting Granholm to 35 percent for Bush.

Somewhat surprisingly, respondents who were either a union member or had a union member living in their household, essentially split on whether Bush or Granholm was more to blame.

“I would have thought they would have been more like Democrats,” Porn said.

The survey was conducted November 13-16 by Lansing-based EPIC/MRA among 600 likely voters and has an error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

EPIC/MRA, in a survey for the Detroit Free Press, found Obama’s job approval rating continuing to struggle with 37 percent approving and 62 percent disapproving, essentially unchanged from October. That same survey showed Obama’s favorability numbers also basically unchanged with 48 percent having a favorable opinion of him to 46 percent unfavorable.

Porn said while Michigan voters might not blame Mr. Obama for the state’s economy, they aren’t happy with his performance.

“That’s not inconsistent with what the national polls are showing in terms of blame for the current economic situation,” he said. “However, that does not replace his responsibility in voters’ minds for not providing the jobs or addressing their economic concerns in providing more jobs than they think he should have provided at this time.”

This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com

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