Klobuchar's popularity: Even Republicans like her

Sen. Amy Klobuchar's approval rating is better than good these days, sitting at 62 percent. So what's her secret? She's pleasing the Republicans too.

A Smart Politics analysis of her approval rating alongside other states polled by SurveyUSA shows she is the only senator in the group to see their approval rating grow from January to April. She gained two points.

She is also tied for second highest approval rating among the two dozen tracked by SurveyUSA, just two percentage points behind Virginia Democrat Sen. Mark Warner.

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But one of the keys to Klobuchar's enduring popularity in the Gopher State has been her ability to gain favor with a large percentage of Republicans - something Norm Coleman failed to do with Democrats in the closing months of the 2008 election.

A Smart Politics analysis of 26 months of SurveyUSA polls dating back to January 2007, when Klobuchar was sworn into office in D.C., finds the Senator consistently getting the nod of nearly 40 percent of self-identified Republicans statewide for her job performance. In 2007, an average of 37.2 percent of Republicans approved of Klobuchar's job performance, followed by 39.6 percent in 2008, and 36.8 percent in 2009.

Meanwhile, Senator Klobuchar is viewed as doing a good job in Washington, D.C. by slightly more than half of the state's independents, and a growing number of the state's Democrats: 75.8 percent in 2007, 77.5 percent in 2008, and 81.8 percent thus far in 2009.

Does she get more credit because she is working overtime as Minnesota's only U.S. senator? Maybe, but her ratings have been remarkably consistent and high. Since January 2008, Klobuchar has only dropped as low as a 58 percent approval rating, which is a 5 percent difference from her current high.