Montanans say terrorism is the biggest problem in the U.S. In a new statewide poll of 435 Montanans, 24 percent offered terrorism as the country's top problem. Joshua Poulette conducted the poll for MSU Billings.
"Now remember this is the week after the attacks in Paris, right, so we have this pretty amazing recency effect," Poulette said.
The poll also showed that all four of Montana’s top elected officials have an approval rating of 50 percent or lower.
Montanans were asked whether they approved or disapproved of the performance in office of Governor Steve Bullock, Senators Jon Tester and Steve Daines, and Congressman Ryan Zinke. Among the four, Bullock had the highest approval rating.
"We saw a large percentage of people who said they didn’t know. That they didn’t have a strong opinion."
Poulette says that’s understandable for Republicans Daines and Zinke because they haven’t been in office that long. Daines actually took office 4 days before Bullock became governor in 2013, but Bullock served as Montana Attorney General before then.
"With Governor Bullock I’m not sure how to explain that. With a 50 percent approval rating, 20 percent disapproval rating, and 30 percent who don’t know or have no opinion, that’s a very high 'don’t know' for an incumbent governor."
The MSU Billings poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.