Dean loses ground to Bush in VT poll

It looks like Howard Dean is facing some dissatisfaction at home in Vermont, due to his extended campaigning for his presidential bid. He has spent a lot of time recently in Iowa and other states laying the groundwork. However, Vermonters feel slighted, to the degree that in a recent poll, 49% said they disapproved of Dean's presidential bid and would not vote for him against Bush.

The article goes into much more detail, analyzing how Dean's numbers compare to Bush with men and women, and tracking how these numbers have changed over recent time.

Here's an excerpt:

Last week’s poll of 600 likely voters showed that 49 percent said they disapproved of Dean’s bid, while 39 percent approved and 13 percent said they were unsure.
...
If the election were held today, 46 percent of Vermonters would vote for Bush, while 34 percent would support Dean, according to the poll. The remaining 20 percent were undecided.

The poll, conducted over two days last week by Research 2000 of Rockville, Md., has a 4 percent margin of error.
...
The recent survey shows a marked decline in Dean’s numbers in his home state since the last poll in June when Dean netted 40 percent of the vote to Bush’s 45 percent. At that time, more voters also approved of Dean’s bid — 45 percent against 44 percent who disapproved.
...
Dean’s job approval rating held better news for the Democratic governor, who is stepping down next year after leading the state for 11 years. Dean received an excellent or good rating from 44 percent of those polled, while 42 percent described his performance as fair and 14 percent said he was doing a poor job.

There is also an exhaustive analysis of the Governor's race in VT (since Dean is resigning after this term).