About half of Minnesotans approve of the job Sen. Norm Coleman is doing as senator, according to a new poll.

The Survey USA poll taken Feb. 15-17 and released today, found that the Republican Coleman’s job approval rating was at 49 percent.

The poll of 600 adults, sponsored by KSTP-TV, and Austin-based KAAL and Duluth-based WDIO, did not measure support for Coleman’s DFL opponents, led by Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, Mike Ciresi and Al Franken.

Coleman’s approval rating is about the same as it was in the Survey USA poll last month (51 percent, and both polls had margins of sampling error of about 4 percentage points). His rating is up from the summer, when he hit a low of 43 percent job approval in the poll.

The new poll also found that Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s job approval is 61 percent — unchanged since the January poll.

Corn. Cotton. Sugar. Rice.

Name a crop and, it seems, there’s a government subsidy or protective tariff for it.

The much-denounced system of ag supports is about to be renewed in Congress, and it’s a pretty safe bet that any changes to the heart of the program will be minimal.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar

Today, our Washington correspondents, Kevin Diaz and Nina Petersen-Perlman, write about the latest effort to trim it back. You can read their story here. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D), is trying to limit government payments to farmers with more than $750,000 in adjusted gross income, arguing that the program currently provides subsidies to people who don’t need them.

“Right now nearly 600 residents of New York City, 559 residents of Washington, DC, and even 21 residents of Beverly Hills 90210 have received federal farm checks in the past three years,” she said last month in a Senate speech. Here’s her full statement.

The Environmental Working Group has been leading the way in calling attention to all the urban “suits” receiving farm subsidies — from athletes to millionaire corporate CEOs. The EWG has done great work making the data accessibile.

For example, I found that 250 people in my decidedly suburban Minnetonka zip code have received farm subsidies totalling more than $3 million from 1995-2005. You can search the database here. And you can find the EWG home page here.

Here’s the Heritage Foundation’s analysis of what’s wrong with the Senate farm bill, and how to improve it.

Sen. Norm Coleman

Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., takes up the defense of the subsidy system, saying the actions of foreign governments makes U.S. subsidies necessary.

“Why do our farm families need a safety net at all? The answer, in part, lies with a world market that is today neither free nor fair. For example, when the world looks at America, it sees U.S. tariffs averaging about 12%. Meanwhile, when American farm families looks at the world, they see an average tariff of about 62% — or 5 times as much.” The rest of Coleman’s statement on agriculture issues can be found here.

And here’s an argument by Diggers Realm that the subsidies are valuable as a homeland security effort.

The dispute over farm subsidies is, of course, not limited to the domestic political arena. It’s a global battle. A few years back, the British Guardian newspaper gave birth to an organization called kickAAS — Kick All Agricultural Subsidies. Here’s the kickAAS site.

The U.S. farm lobby has gotten smaller over the years, as there are fewer but larger farm operations. But the lobby has retained its clout, at least in part because agriculture — whether grain, livestock, cotton, vegetable, fruit or dairy production — is an important industry in virtually every state. It’s no surprise, for example, that the major presidential candidates are not campaigning to end farm subsidies — not with the Iowa caucuses coming up.

What do you think? Is the income limit on full-time farmers that Klobuchar is suggesting a reasonable one? Or could it, as Coleman argues, fracture the coalition of farm interests trying to get the farm bill passed? Do you prefer his plan to direct the reform at “part-time” farmers?

Sen. Amy Klobuchar

Today’s Star Tribune Minnesota Poll — here it is — showing Sen. Amy Klobuchar with a 61 percent job approval rating is a clear sign that she hasn’t made any missteps in her first 10 months in Washington. The job approval rating is about the same as her vote total when she was elected last year — with 58 percent of the vote.

But there’s no question that Klobuchar’s high standing is unusual.

Consider these Minnesota Poll job approval ratings for the last four U.S. senators from Minnesota when they were approximately a year into their first term. Only one other senator — Republican Norm Coleman — had a rating higher than 50 percent:

Norm Coleman, R: 12 months in (Jan. 2004) — 54 percent
Mark Dayton, D: 13 months in (Feb. 2002) — 46 percent
Rod Grams, R: 9 months in (Sept. 1995) — 37 percent
Paul Wellstone, D: 12 months in (Jan. 1992) 50 percent

The Grams findings were striking because they showed that 36 percent of Minnesotans had no opinion regarding his job performance. Only 27 percent disapproved.

Wellstone’s 50 percent rating represented a quick rehabilitation from his first job approval just three months into his term — 35 percent. His vocal protests against the Gulf War, including at the Vietnam War Memorial — drew lots of criticism.

(No, I didn’t forget Sen. Dean Barkley. Because he served only a matter of weeks to fill out Wellstone’s term, we don’t have any job approval polls on him.)

Here’s another way to look at Klobuchar’s numbers — in comparison to other members of her freshman senate class. Here are poll numbers I was able to find:

Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.: 54 percent in a Survey USA poll in September.
Robert Casey, Jr., D-Pa.: 49 percent in a Quinnipiac University poll in August.
Jim Webb, D-Va.: 46 percent in a Survey USA poll in September.
Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio: 45 percent in a Survey USA poll in September.
Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.: 41 percent in a Brown University Taubman Center poll in September. That poll asked people to rate his job performance, and 7 percent said excellent and 34 percent said good.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty

If anyone knows of job approval polls for the other freshmen — Democrats Ben Cardin, Md., and Jon Tester, Mont.; Republican Bob Corker, Tenn.; and independent Bernie Sanders, Vt., — please add them below.

What do you make of Klobuchar’s high ride in the poll? I also wonder whether Klobuchar’s 61 percent and Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s 59 percent job approval make them the highest-regarded Senator/Governor duo from opposite parties in the country.