“Life Is Not Fair”: Governors' Job Performance Ratings and State Economies

Abstract

Presidential popularity has been shown to respond to economic trends. This article uses survey data from California and seven other states, 196797, to test whether govemors are likewise vulnerable to trends in state economies. Multiple regression is used to test the impact of the state's unemployment and rate of per capita income growth on disapproval of the govemor's job performance. Even with controls for national economic trends and other factors affecting the governor's popularity (taxation, tenure in office, party control of the legislature, state income growth), state unemployment has a significant negative impact that has increased over time. The impact is not symmetric; lower unemployment does not lead to more positive ratings. Governors must therefore devise policies and rhetoric to counterbalance their lack of influence over state unemployment.