I’ve been suspicious in the past of the Democratic polling firm PPP. One, they robo-call. Secondly, in the past, they have way over sampled Democrats and under-sampled young people. That said, their sampling has improved, and some of the numbers in a wide ranging poll that PPP released today on Alaska is generally in keeping with at least one other recently released poll, even if they did poll a candidate who dropped out of the race. Read on.

Here’s some highlights from the poll on the governor’s race:

• Gov. Sean Parnell:  44 42 percent approve of the job he’s doing while 41 44 percent disapprove. By comparison, in a poll done in March by local firm Dittman Research, 54 percent of Alaskans said that the governor was doing a good job, and 41 percent said the governor wasn’t doing a good job.
• In the general election, Parnell wins 37 percent to Democratic challenger Byron Mallott’s 27 percent and independent candidate Bill Walker’s 17 percent. 15 percent of Alaskans remain decided.

Here’s some highlights from the poll on the Senate race:

• Among 313 Republican primary voters surveyed, Dan Sullivan has a 14 point lead over Mead Treadwell: 40 percent for Sullivan and 26 percent for Treadwell. Joe Miller, the other challenger, is falling in the polls with only 14 percent of GOP primary voters saying that they’d vote for him in August. These numbers are generally consistent with a poll paid for by Sullivan that was released earlier this month.

Other findings:

• In the lieutenant governor’s GOP primary race, Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan would beat state Sen. Lesil McGuire 53 to 27 percent, with 21 percent undecided.
• Among the general voting public, Sarah Palin’s favorability rating is 36 percent. Her unfavorable is 56 percent.
• U.S. Rep. Don Young is surprisingly the most popular politician up for reelection in Alaska this year. 46 percent of voters approve of the job he’s doing to 39 percent who disapprove.
• However, as evidenced to how much PPP knows about Alaska politics, it polled Matt Moore against Young. As expected, Young is walloping Moore, 50 percent to 22 percent. The problem? Moore isn’t even running for Congress. He dropped out to run for state House. The new darling of the Democratic Party, Forrest Dunbar, is running against Young. But he wasn’t included.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com