Would Goff be a better Mayor than he was Leader?

As Goff lines up to try and become the leader of Auckland, it is worth looking at how he did as the leader of Labour. The graph above is the data from the TV3 Reid Research poll which asks if people approve or disapprove of the job party leaders are doing.

As you can see Goff started with a positive public response. He had 43% approving and just 27% disapproving for a net of +16%.

But over the next two and a half years his disapproval rating rose from 27% to peak at 54% in October 2011. That takes some doing, to double the number of people who say you’re doing a poor job. And his approvals dropped from 43% to 28%.

Overall he went from a +16% rating to a -26% rating.

Were the public wrong, or was Goff not a good leader?