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Immigration bill gives Gov. Jan Brewer bump in new poll of Arizona voters

Gov. Jan Brewer's signing of the nation's toughest immigration law appears to be sitting well with Arizona voters.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey, released this morning, suggests that 56 percent of respondents now approve of Brewer's job performance as Governor. In a poll two weeks ago, just 40 percent indicated they approved of the job she was doing.

Rasmussen, a New Jersey-based opinion polling firm, tracks President Barack Obama's daily job approval rating and does regular surveys on other hot button topics.

The outfit's newest poll, which surveyed 500 likely Arizona voters by telephone on Tuesday, is attributing Brewer's bounce to her signing of Senate Bill 1070, a piece of legislation that has launched a national debate on immigration and border issues. Brewer signed the bill on Friday.

The bill, which takes effect 90 days after the legislative session ends, makes it a state crime for undocumented immigrants to be in Arizona. Critics fear that it will lead to racial profiling and possible violations of the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees the right against unreasonable searches and seizures.

But even as talk of lawsuits and boycotts of the state continue, polling suggests that Brewer's stance could bode well for her in the upcoming gubernatorial election, Rasmussen says.

Brewer, who is in a Republican, is expected to face a tight primary race against businessman Owen "Buz" Mills, state treasurer Dean Martin, and former Arizona Board of Regents President John Munger.

While the latest poll did not specifically ask about the Republican primary, it did determine that 81 percent of Republicans surveyed now approve of Brewer's performance, up from 52 percent before she signed the immigration law.

And the survey does indicate that if Brewer were to be the Republican nominee, she would get 48 percent of the vote, while the presumptive Democratic nominee, Attorney General Terry Goddard, would attract 40 percent of the vote.

A poll by a different organization, released Tuesday, gave Goddard a slight edge over Brewer.

Rasmussen's new survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percent percentage points with a 95 percent confidence level.

--Ginger Rough

Wednesday, April 28, 2010 at 09:36 AM

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