The Associated Press

FRANKFORT, Ky. - Gov. Ernie Fletcher remains popular among Kentuckians after his first few months in office, despite the blockage of his tax reform proposal by the General Assembly, according to a newspaper poll.

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The Bluegrass Poll, taken May 5-11 by The Courier-Journal of Louisville, found that 53 percent of respondents said they somewhat or strongly approved of Fletcher's job performance, 28 percent said they somewhat or strongly disapproved, and 19 percent had no opinion.

The survey of 811 Kentuckians had an error margin of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

Fletcher's approval rating in a Bluegrass Poll conducted in early February was 51 percent, with 25 percent disapproving.

The rating for Fletcher, the first Republican governor in three decades, was similar to Bluegrass Polls taken early in the terms of Govs. Wallace Wilkinson and Brereton Jones.

Half of those polled said they don't know enough about the failure to pass a state budget to say who is to blame. Of those with an opinion, 12 percent blame Fletcher, 11 percent said the House, 7 percent said the Senate, and 6 percent said both the House and Senate. Ten percent blame all three.

Fletcher Chief of Staff Daniel Groves said the results were encouraging.

"I think these results are pretty positive for the governor," Groves said. "We've held up even though over the past six months we've made some difficult decisions with respect for the budget and the nearly $1 billion shortfall we faced at the outset. And we've been hit hard by the two largest newspapers' editorial pages."

Though Fletcher has survived the budget and tax debate without damage to his popularity, the poll showed that only 36 percent of those polled said they were at least somewhat familiar with details of his major initiative: tax reform.

Only 3 percent of the poll's respondents said they were very familiar with Fletcher's tax plan, while 33 percent said they were somewhat familiar. Of those familiar with the plan, 43 percent said they support it and 42 percent oppose it.