Minn. falling back in love with T-Paw?

​ In the latest SurveyUSA poll, Gov. Tim Pawlenty received a 53-percent approval rating in July. That's a six-point increase since June and ties with January for his best approval rating in 2009.

The poll was conducted with 600 adults between July 17-19.

His highest two-year approval rating high came after the 2008 election and hit 58 percent. This all comes despite depressingly high unemployment rates and serious budget issues in Minnesota. He's even doing better than most of the other states that participate in the SurveyUSA poll.

From Smart Politics:

SurveyUSA tracks the approval ratings of approximately one-quarter of the nation's governors, and Pawlenty's 8.6 percent (5.0-point) drop in approval ratings from November 2008 to July 2009 is the third lowest in the 13-state sample.

Pawlenty and Nixon (MO) are also the only two governors in the SurveyUSA sample of states who currently have a higher job approval rating than the percentage of residents who last voted them into office.