The ‘Gubernatorial Power Rankings’

Nate Silver has developed a really interesting “gubernatorial power ranking.”

The assumption behind the rankings is that we can’t judge a governor’s success or popularity simply by their approval rating. For example, one might consider a Republican with a 55% approval rating in a Democratic leaning state to be “more popular” (relatively speaking) than a Democrat with a 63% approval rating in a similarly Democratic state.

Second, as FiveThirtyEight has mentioned before, it’s somewhat easier for a statewide politician to achieve a high approval rating in a small state, where he can meet and greet more of the voters.

Silver’s new index tries to take both of those biases into account. The result is a really fascinating (although imprecise) ranking of gubernatorial popularity.

The winner? Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D-Wyo.), followed by Charlie Crist (R-Fla.).

But there are also a couple interesting revelations. Tim Pawlenty, mentioned so frequently as a Presidential contender, ends up a fairly average governor in terms of popularity. Actually, he’s exactly in the middle of the pack–25th.

Meanwhile, Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose suffering dismal approval ratings, gets a boost for being a Republican in large, Democratic state. He ends up 33rd.

Read the whole list here.