Talent's Approval Rating Climbs to 52%

Sen. Jim Talent has earned his highest approval rating from SurveyUSA's monthly tracking poll in more than a year.

52% of Missourians approve of the job Sen. Jim Talent is doing, according to an August poll of 600 adults. Talent's approval rating has been steadily climbing since May, where he won the nod of just 43% of those polled. He is up 3 points from July's 49% approval rating.

In the August survey, Talent wins 51% of independents, 54% of voters in the Ozarks and 54% in St. Louis. The junior senator seems to be most popular in Central Missouri, where he scored a 58% mark.

Politicos would bet that Talent's late-summer bi-partisan ad blitz is helping lift his numbers. The barrage of ads feature Talent's work as a bipartisan legislator who has joined with Democrats on a host of issues like, the prescription drug benefit, renewable fuels and combating meth.

Noteworthy is that Talent's 52% August approval rating is even a notch higher than Sen. Kit Bond's 51% mark.

North Dakota's Democratic Senator Kent Conrad has the highest approval rating in the poll at 74%. Montana Republican Senator Conrad Burns has the lowest at just 39%.