WASHINGTON--While White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is mapping a Chicago mayoral run, he should be grateful he is not intending to run statewide in Illinois: A new Rasmussen Poll, released on Tuesday found that only 40 percent of likely voters in Illinois (this is not a Chicago only poll) have a favorable opinion of him and 46 percent view him unfavorable. Illinois Democrats like Emanuel better than Republicans and Independents. Click here for my column on how Emanuel commissioned his long-time pollster, Stanley Greenberg to survey Chicagoans on a potential mayoral bid. The Emanuel poll was out in the field over the weekend.
From Rasmussen: "These findings include 19% who share a Very Favorable opinion of him and 32% who have a Very Unfavorable one.
"Sixty-five percent (65%) of Democrats in Illinois view Emanuel positively, while 77% of Republicans and 53% of voters not affiliated with either party have a negative impression of him."
The telephone poll 0f 750 likely Illinois voters was taken Sept. 12 with a four percent margin of error.
Lynn Sweet is a columnist and the Washington Bureau Chief for the 
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I've conducted a poll on of my own showing Rahm @ 57% over all likely candidates. The commentaries have been the same:
"He's the obvious choice, I don't know much about the others...some I've never heard of"
When asked about Rahm, most feel he has the experience and the fact that Obama chose him as his White House Chief of Staff.