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POLITICS

16% View Interior Secretary Salazar Favorably

With gas prices soaring, the pressure's on the Obama administration to increase the number of permits for deepwater oil drilling. Right now, just 16% of Likely U.S. Voters have a favorable opinion of the man who'll grant those permits, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, with a scant one percent (1%) who regard him Very Favorably.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 27% view the former Colorado senator unfavorably, including 11% with a Very Unfavorable view of him. But like many of his fellow Cabinet members, Salazar is an unknown commodity to many voters: 57% don't know enough about him to venture any kind of opinion. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Rasmussen Reports has been regularly asking voters in recent weeks what they think of the president's Cabinet members. Despite the importance of many of their positions and the actions they take, most of these political appointees are little known to voters in general. A list of these findings is available here. With 60% favorables, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is the best-known and most popular member of the Cabinet.

By contrast, only 20% of voters have a favorable opinion of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, with two percent (2%) who view him Very Favorably. The former Iowa governor is seen unfavorably by 17%, including seven percent (7%) with a Very Unfavorable impression. However, 63% don't venture any kind of opinion of Vilsack.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.
 

 The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on March 12-13, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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