Purple Strategies is out with a new round of swing state polls today and finds Paul Ryan as the only candidate on a presidential ticket with a positive favorability rating in Colorado.
In the poll, Colorado voters gave Ryan a 44% favorable rating to a 38% unfavorable rating, with 17% “not sure.” By comparison, Vice President Joe Biden was at a -8 net negative favorable rating. President Obama and Governor Romney had identical ratings, with 46% favorable to 50% unfavorable.
For Romney that is a 14-point positive shift since July, when a Purple Poll found Romney at 37% favorable to 55% unfavorable.
Also shifting is Colorado voters' perceptions of the economy, which they find to be getting worse. In July 30% said the economy was getting better to 42% who said it was getting worse. Now only 27% say the economy is getting better, with 44% say it's getting worse.
In the head-to-head match up the Obama/Biden ticket is beating the Romney/Ryan ticket 49%-46% with a margin of error of 3.1%. That is a two-point shift to Obama since the last Colorado Purple Poll, that had Obama up one point over Romney in July.
The poll was conducted August 13-14, with a sample of 1000 “likely voters.” Purple Strategies did not release their partisan sample, making it harder to judge the validity of their “likely voter” model, but Purple Poll is held in high regard, so we are apt to trust it.
Overall, the poll has positives for both Romney and Obama. Obama sees a two-point pickup on top line numbers, but Romney has seen a massive rebounding of his personal image. Most importantly, with the election likely to hinge on the economy, voters' perceptions of an economy getting worse certainly favors Romney.
With 83 days to go, it's anyone's race in Colorado.