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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Freshman Gov. Jon Huntsman and Utah's lawmakers got high marks in a new poll.
Huntsman's approval rating stood at 80 percent, while 61 percent of the state's residents approved of the work the legislature did this year, according to a poll conducted for the Deseret Morning News and KSL Television by Dan Jones & Associates.
The poll of 624 Utah residents was conducted between March 7-10. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.
Huntsman's 80 percent approval rating, just three months after taking office, puts him near the approval rating of former Gov. Olene Walker, who left office in December with an 87 percent rating.
Only 3 percent of Republicans disapproved of the job Huntsman did with the Legislature. Only 15 percent of Democrats disapprove of the governor's job performance.
Previous surveys by Jones have shown legislative approval either below or just above 50 percent.
In the new survey, Jones found that 58 percent of Utahns specifically approved of how Republican legislators handled their work this past session.
Fifty-nine percent approved of the work of the minority Democrats in the Legislature. Rep. Pat Jones, D-Cottonwood Heights, a member of House minority leadership, is Dan Jones' wife and a partner in Dan Jones & Associates.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
