Blago numbers take a plunge

From the Trib...

Winds of change may have put Rod Blagojevich in the governor's office, but a steady buffeting of allegations over mismanagement and "pay to play" politics have soured a growing number of Illinois voters on the first-term Democrat, a new Tribune/WGN-TV poll shows.

Blagojevich has generally enjoyed healthy approval ratings since taking office two years ago, but the survey found more voters now say they disapprove of the way he is doing his job than say they like it.

Perhaps even more troubling for Blagojevich, only one-third of voters say they want to see him re-elected next year while 45 percent say they don't, according to the poll.

The poll's findings came as an investigation by Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan and Cook County State's Atty. Richard Devine, probing allegations that plum positions on state boards and commissions were traded for campaign donations to Blagojevich, entered the subpoena stage.

Sources close to the investigation said more than 20 grand jury subpoenas, seeking documents involving Blagojevich appointees, had been handed out by prosecutors.

The job-trading allegations are but one of a steady series of problems that has sent Blagojevich's job approval rating crashing to 35 percent among the 1,200 likely voters surveyed in the Tribune/WGN-TV survey. Another 44 percent said they disapproved of the governor's job performance, while 21 percent had no opinion.

In a similar Tribune/WGN-TV survey last fall, Blagojevich was riding a favorable wave of voter sentiment, with 52 percent crediting him for the job he was doing while only 28 percent disapproved.