Rick Scott isn't the only freshman Southeastern governor with horrid poll numbers. But after nearly a year in office, that's small solace for Florida's chief executive.

In what may be the most surprising fall from gubernatorial grace, South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley's approval rating has plummeted into the mid-30 percent range.

Meantime, North Carolina Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue lags 10 points behind her GOP rival in the run-up to the 2012 election.

Citing a new Public Policy Polling survey, Dean Pagani of Governors Journal likened Scott's 26 percent approval rate to "Nixon territory -- as in Richard Nixon at the end of his presidency."

"It makes Scott the least popular governor of all those surveyed by PPP, and probably the least popular in the country," he said.

Equally sobering, Pagani noted, was a new Winthrop University poll pegging Haley’s approval rating at 34.6 percent. That's alarmingly low, considering she won office handily last year in the staunchly Republican Palmetto State.

"Her low approval ratings stand in direct contrast to the perception of her outside South Carolina. She came to office on the cover of Newsweek magazine and challenging President Obama on health care at her first White House meeting. She often appears on national television as a reliable Obama critic and she has traveled to other states as a popular speaker at GOP events," Pagani said.

In North Carolina, Perdue is struggling with a 37 percent approval rating in the latest PPP survey. The first-term governor continues to trail her likely opponent in next year’s re-election campaign by 10 points, Pagani reported.

All three Southern governors seem to be paying a price for their states' double-digit unemployment rates that exceed the national average. But other factors figure in as well.

Haley has been dogged by staff problems since taking office, and the recent indictment of three Perdue election workers on campaign finance charges has cast a cloud over the Democrat's re-election bid. With enough problems of her own, Perdue has yet to say whether she will appear with the increasingly unpopular Obama when he visits Fort Bragg on Wednesday.

Scott's poll woes appear to be more policy-driven, political scientists tell Sunshine State News. A year after he defeated Democrat Alex Sink, Scott's agenda remains both enigmatic and polarizing, they say.

"He was not that popular to begin with and won only a slim majority to get elected. He has tried to portray a kinder, gentler image and get more in tune with the state over the past several months, but it has had very little effect," said Sean Foreman, political science professor at Barry University in Miami Shores.

"He is generally disliked by many people who can’t get over his checkered background and the legal troubles his companies have had."

Seth McKee, a political science professor at University of South Florida St. Petersburg, noted that Scott, a novice politician, hit the ground stumbling.

"Not long after he was sworn in, Scott behaved in a manner that drew broad opposition, with nixing high-speed light rail between Tampa and Orlando as the most prominent case.

"He drew bipartisan ire in refusing federal funds for this project, and then turned around and supported a smaller project [SunRail] in the Orlando area," McKee recounted.

Listing two challenging areas of public policy, McKee said, "It doesn't appear, especially from public opinion polls, that Scott is getting better at being governor the longer he's been in the job."