O'Malley's job approval lower than Bush's

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ANNAPOLIS — Maryland residents say Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, is doing a worse job than President Bush, according to a new poll released yesterday.

Marylanders gave Mr. Bush, a Republican, a 36 percent job-approval rating, just slightly more than the 33 percent they gave Mr. O'Malley, according to the Fox 5/The Washington Times/Rasmussen Reports poll.

A separate poll in Virginia shows 51 percent of residents approved of the work Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, is doing, while 46 percent approved of Mr. Bush's work.

The polls of 500 likely voters in each state have a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.

Mr. O'Malley's approval rating slipped 1 percentage point from October, before he called lawmakers back to Annapolis to raise $1.4 billion in taxes. But respondents who said he was doing a "poor" job increased from 30 percent to 37 percent.

O'Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese declined to comment.

The polls show Maryland and Virginia voters take a conservative view on key social issues that lawmakers will address when their respective 2008 General Assembly sessions begin this week.

Two-thirds of Marylanders, 66 percent, support giving police officers the right to check the immigration status of drivers when they are pulled over for a traffic violation, but only 55 percent think illegal aliens should be deported if they're discovered.

More than three-quarters of Marylanders, 76 percent, said illegals should be barred from obtaining driver's licenses.

Maryland is one of eight states that provides licenses to illegals.