Although only 1 percent rated Cayetano's work as excellent, 37 percent said it was good and 49 percent said it was fair.
This month's statewide poll, when compared with earlier Star-Bulletin surveys, also shows that:
Twelve percent believe Cayetano is doing a poor job. But 30 percent in both 1993 and 1994 said Waihee was a lousy governor.
Many observers believe Waihee's popularity nose-dived after the Senate rejected the controversial nomination of attorney Sharon Himeno to the Supreme Court, and a Senate special committee investigated how his administration procured goods and services. The probe led to the resignation of then-Budget Director Yukio Takemoto.
Last year, three months after Cayetano was inaugurated, 19 percent said they were undecided about him, the highest undecided rating for a governor since the Star-Bulletin poll began in 1989.
But now, the undecided has fallen to 1 percent, while those assessing Cayetano's performance as fair has grown to 49 percent from 29 percent.
The latest poll also found that nearly one out of every two respondents felt that Cayetano had a strong vision of where he wanted to lead the state and that - compared with Waihee and the Legislature - Cayetano was least responsible for the state's budget crisis.
The telephone survey of 421 registered voters was conducted March 15-17 for the Star-Bulletin by Mason-Dixon Political/Media Research Inc. of Columbia, Md. The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 5 percentage points.
"I'm not dissatisfied with these poll showings," Cayetano said, noting that he had taken drastic steps, such as massive terminations and the first-ever layoffs of civil servants, to cope with the state's revenue shortfall.
His poor rating jumped to 12 percent from 7 percent in a year's time probably because his budget-cutting initiatives, such as with the University of Hawaii and welfare recipients, meant taking on special-interest groups, he said.
"Each of these things have a constituency. So it's not surprising that people directly affected by these cuts are dissatisfied," Cayetano said.
"Under these kinds of situations, that I would be getting this kind of rating, I appreciate that."
Eva Wong, 40, of Kaneohe, an unemployed accounting clerk, said she gave Cayetano a fair job performance assessment. Cayetano is cutting too deeply at the university and should look more at areas not involving education, said Wong, who attended a private institution, Brigham Young University at Laie.
But in fairness to Cayetano, he didn't create the state's budget crisis but inherited it from fellow Democrat Waihee, Wong said, echoing the sentiments of many other poll respondents.
If state personnel costs need to be reduced further, Wong said she would favor 5 percent pay cuts rather than more layoffs. Terminationscould boost the unemployment rate and would mean more payments of unemployment compensation, she said.
Gary Mangum, 52, of Kihei, a foster parent to three teen-agers, said he believes the state work force can be shrunk without sacrificing services to the public.
Mangum, who like Wong said he has no political affiliation, added that he favors Cayetano's efforts to tighten welfare eligibility requirements and require people who can to work.
But Mangum, who rated Cayetano as doing a fair job, said he would also like to see funding cuts to social services restored as much as possible.
Another poll respondent from Kihei, Evelyn Lentz, 66, a Republican real estate broker, said of Cayetano: "He's not doing that fantastic a job. I don't think he's been decisive enough."
Cayetano and Waihee have made education their priority, but public schools continue to lag behind Hawaii's private schools, Lentz said.