JUNEAU -- He's not quite Sarah Palin, but Gov. Bill Walker is riding a post-election tide of good feelings, with a recent poll showing only a small fraction of voters who view him negatively.
The pollster whose firm conducted the research, Matt Larkin, said the results show Walker on the "classic honeymoon" of a newly elected chief executive. Palin, for example, enjoyed ratings as high as 93 percent in surveys taken the year after she was elected, which Larkin characterized as a "huge tidal wave" of support.
Walker, who dropped his Republican party registration and ran with a Democratic running mate, Byron Mallott, won his race over incumbent Republican Gov. Sean Parnell last year by just 3 percent. That prompted some grumbling afterward by Walker's political opponents that he lacks a political mandate.
But the new poll, paid for by the House Republican-led majority and conducted by Dittman Research and Communications Corp. in early March, shows that just 13 percent of Alaskans view Walker negatively. Fifty-four percent view him positively, and the rest -- 33 percent -- say they're unsure.
Another measure shows 68 percent of respondents saying Walker is doing a good or excellent job, with 15 percent saying he's doing a not very good or poor job.
In a phone interview Friday, Larkin said the poll shows that even the people who didn't vote for Walker think he still deserves a shot.
"They want to give him that chance," Larkin said.
A spokesman for Walker, Ty Keltner, said the poll results were "encouraging." But, Keltner added, Walker is going to "continue serving Alaskans as best he can on all the issues during his time in office."
Legislative leaders who have clashed with Walker over his plans to expand the public Medicaid health care program and to develop a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope said they weren't surprised by the results. The poll also shows that just over half of Alaskans view the Legislature positively and think it's doing a good job -- but with higher negative ratings than Walker.
"He just got elected. The rest of us have been here a while," said Senate President Kevin Meyer, R-Anchorage, in a meeting with reporters Friday. "And Gov. Walker's a great guy. He's so accessible, and a nice guy to talk with -- and I think some people voted for him because, by golly, we're going to get a gas pipeline built, which is what we all want."
House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, suggested that the Legislature's numbers could be lower because of its role in vetting lofty policy proposals and plans to see if they're fiscally responsible. He referenced Walker's goals for the Medicaid program and for the natural gas pipeline.
"We're the appropriation body," Chenault said at his own Friday meeting with reporters. "And while somebody might like a plan or a proposal out there that they think's the next best thing to buttered bread, we still need to make sure we're comfortable."
Chenault said he didn't plan to change any of his positions based on the results of the poll. And although Republican legislative leaders have moved to thwart Walker's bid to shape the plans for a state-controlled natural gas line, Chenault maintained the two branches of government are "not at opposite ends of a pipeline."
"We both want to see the biggest pipeline that we can build for the state," Chenault said. "It's just a matter of, you know, him being new into the administration, trying to get more comfortable with something we've worked on for a number of years that brings us a better comfort level than the governor has."
An aide to Chenault also pointed out the 33 percent of poll respondents who said they were still unsure about Walker. Larkin, the pollster, said one big unknown is: Which direction do those people go?
"They're going to move somewhere, and they're either going to move into the favorable category or the unfavorable category," Larkin said.
He added that chief executives' approval ratings tend to fall the longer they've been in office. Each tough political decision can split off groups and people who were supportive, Larkin said -- and Walker's expected to face many tough decisions as he and the Legislature work to close a multibillion-dollar state budget deficit.
Palin's approval rating ultimately crumbled from the high marks she received shortly after her election. Just 32 percent of likely Alaska voters said they had a favorable opinion of Palin in a poll taken in September by a national firm -- and she lost a hypothetical presidential matchup with the leading Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, 44 percent to 38 percent.
The Dittman poll also found that despite persistent negative news about the state budget, Alaskans were buoyant overall about the state's economy, with 69 percent of respondents saying it was "good" or "very good."
Alaskans were split over what they thought should be the Legislature's priority, with 24 percent saying it should balance the budget and cut spending and 17 percent said it should encourage a gas pipeline. Nearly half thought state spending was too high, but 33 percent said it was "about right," almost the same number who thought that current spending was sustainable into the future.
Among the answers to a question about lowering state spending or raising revenues, 21 percent favored an income or sales tax and 13 percent thought Permanent Fund earnings should be tapped. But 56 percent favored reductions in spending and use of savings.
The poll showed Alaskans were somewhat pragmatic about the prospects for a gas pipeline from the North Slope to Southcentral. Forty-four percent predicted a gas line "will never happen," while 42 percent thought a line was "getting closer." The remainder were undecided.
The poll questioned 700 Alaskans and had a margin of error of just under 4 percent.