**** To know Pence is NOT to dislike him! ****

Here is another report of the Republican Party of Kentucky sponsored poll -- this one to do with Lt. Governor, Steve Pence.
Read it here.
Here are excerpts:
One of the interesting subplots revealed in new Republican polling data was the contrast between respondents' views of Gov. Ernie Fletcher and Lt. Gov. Steve Pence.
In the poll conducted for the Kentucky GOP by a Washington-based firm, the two men were viewed favorably by roughly the same percentage of people -- 38 percent for Pence, 36 percent for Fletcher.
But 57 percent said they didn't have a positive impression of Fletcher, while just 22 percent thought of Pence unfavorably.
Pence's biggest weakness was that 28 percent of those surveyed did not know who he was, compared with just 2 percent who didn't know Fletcher.
... Respondents also said they'd be far less likely to vote against legislative candidates who brought Pence to campaign for them than someone who stood next to Fletcher.
So how did two men who ran on the same ticket end up on such different paths?
Perhaps much of it stems from Pence's gradual divorce from Fletcher's handling of the state hiring investigation.
Pence was the most prominent administration official who didn't show up to Fletcher's public pardoning of his aides last August, sending a subtle signal of disapproval with that move.
Then, on May 31, Pence announced he wouldn't run for re-election with Fletcher in 2007.
Fletcher then asked Pence to step down as lieutenant governor, but Pence refused.
"That leaves Pence the ability to say, 'Hey, I'm my own guy and not part of the inside circle,'" Eastern Kentucky University political science professor Joe Gershtenson said last month.
"That certainly works to the lieutenant governor's advantage given the troubles that the governor has been experiencing," added Gershtenson, who also is director of the Center for Kentucky History and Politics at EKU.
Some Republicans had privately speculated that Pence's departure from the ticket, but refusal to resign, might backfire on him.
But another question in the poll, which was conducted by Washington-based pollster Jan R. van Lohuizen, examined that very issue.
Respondents were asked to pick whether they agreed with Pence, "who says the people of Kentucky elected him to be their lieutenant governor and he owes it to the people to serve out his term," or with Fletcher, "who says Steve Pence should step down now so the government can move forward with new energy."
Sixty-two percent sided with Pence while 25 percent agreed with the governor.
"I don't think the public knows Steve Pence very well," said Fletcher's chief of staff, Stan Cave, when asked why respondents seemed to have a better view of Pence.
"He has not been under the same barrage from the liberal media and press that the governor has been," he said.