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Gov. Bev Perdue's approval rating continues its steady drop, Public Policy Polling reports today.

It's fallen to only 25 percent. Even among Democrats, only 38 percent think she's doing a good job.

"Perdue's in bad shape -- the only Senator or Governor we've polled on this year with a worse approval rating is Roland Burris," PPP's Tom Jensen writes on the organization's blog.

And PPP is overtly favorable to Democrats, although its polling is on the level.

I think, clearly, part of this is bad luck. This is a lousy time to be governor. The economy stinks and unemployment keeps going up. A governor, whether it's her fault to any extent or not, is going to catch some blame.

Unfortunately, Perdue has made some political missteps. She angered teachers and other state employees last spring by docking a portion of their pay to close a budget gap. Then, last month, she tried to appease teachers but angered a lot more people by holding rallies for education funding and calling for tax increases.

Last week she attempted to soften the tax-hike blow by proposing to make some increases "temporary." I guess the believability factor wasn't too high.

PPP hasn't polled about the popularity of the state legislature but it must be rock bottom. It's going to raise taxes but, two weeks into the new fiscal year, it still can't agree on what taxes and how much. It's now operating on its second "stopgap" budget. Doing a lousy job and missing deadlines warrants very low ratings.

I am sorry Perdue's not getting credit for being a more open and accessible governor than her predecessor. If it's any consolation to her, PPP has found that Mike Easley is rated as North Carolina's least-popular governor since 1972, a distinction he richly deserves.