A new poll from the Tribune indicates that Bush’s mediocre approval rating among Illinoisans has sunk with remarkable speed. Hopefully, this will dissuade the GOP from investing resources into a state that, thanks to Democratic consolidation in multiethnic Cook County, is rapidly trending Democratic.

For the first time in his presidency, there are more Illinois voters of all political stripes who disapprove than approve of the job Bush is doing, and more than half don’t want to see him elected to a second term, according to the poll.

The survey not only found widespread voter dissatisfaction with the president over the economy and jobs, but more than four in 10 Illinois voters said they believed the Bush administration purposely misled the public about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as he led the nation to war.

If the election were held today, Kerry would be backed by 52 percent of the state’s voters while Bush would get 38 percent, the poll showed. Another 10 percent were undecided and 1 percent opted for another candidate.

That 14 percentage-point advantage for Kerry compares to the 2000 election result in Illinois in which then-Vice President Al Gore received 55 percent of the vote, compared with 43 percent for Bush.

The survey results among general-election voters show them to be polarized heavily along partisan lines.

With 92 percent of voters who called themselves Democrats backing Kerry and 86 percent of those who identified themselves as Republicans supporting Bush, there appears little opportunity for either side to pick off crossover votes.

In addition, independents are almost evenly split between the two men.

The survey found Bush trailing heavily in the Democratic enclaves of Chicago and suburban Cook County and leading only slightly in the traditionally Republican-leaning collar counties.

Downstate voters were almost equally divided.

The poll also showed signs of a gender-gap problem for Bush. Male voters were divided between Kerry and Bush, but Kerry held a 24-percentage-point advantage among women. White suburban women, the so-called “soccer mom” demographic, favor Kerry over Bush only slightly, 44 percent to 40 percent.