Bad news for the homeboy:

“WASHINGTON — A new poll shows that U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez’s approval ratings with voters have plunged to an all-time low, apparently reflecting his support for a controversial immigration-reform bill.

Only 37 percent of those polled by Quinnipiac University approved of the way Martinez was handling his job, while 34 percent disapproved and the rest were undecided. That’s down from a high of 48 percent approval — and 22 percent disapproval — in February, before the latest immigration bill was announced.

Martinez, in a brief interview Thursday afternoon, shrugged off the poll numbers and vowed to keep working for the reform legislation.

“I didn’t come here to take the easy way,” Martinez said.

Thursday evening, however, senators refused to halt debate on the bill, prompting Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada to yank it from the floor. Reid said he didn’t know when it would come back up.

Martinez, who is not up for re-election until 2010, is part of a bipartisan group that has negotiated a delicate compromise to offer a path toward legal residence for 12 million illegal immigrants and a temporary guest-worker program for future immigrants. The plan has been criticized from the right as amnesty for lawbreakers and from the left as not providing enough help to immigrants who want to bring family members to the United States.

“An incumbent with a 37 percent approval rating needs to mend some fences,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, which polled 1,174 Floridians from May 24 to June 4 as the Senate worked on the immigration bill. The poll has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.”

I don’t believe that a politician should govern themselves only via a poll. But as a Floridian we do demand that Martinez listen to our voices. The fact that just because he isn’t up for reelection until 2010 doesn’t mean that we still have no voice.

As noted in a previous post the reason this bill sunk – besides the fact that it stunk – is that the American people did not want it.

Just in case you forgot, in this country Senator Martinez you represent OUR views, the majority who elected you. You were not elected to run renagade against the voters and promote your own agenda.