The website Morning Consult published results of a new 50-state poll on Tuesday, once again ranking the nation’s governors according to their approval rating.

And yes, once again, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback came out as the least popular governor in America. But that’s happened so many times in recent months, it’s hardly news anymore. But there’s another interesting factoid in the polling results that, when you see it, really makes you wonder how that could happen and what it really means.

Remember that in these kinds of polls, respondents are typically given three options: they can either approve of the governor’s performance; disapprove of the governor’s performance; or — and this is the interesting one — they either don’t know or have no opinion about the governor’s performance.

If you go to the web page where the poll results are published, you can sort the results based on any of those three categories. And if you click on the “don’t know/no opinion’ category, you find that Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead has the highest, for lack of a better word, “indifference” rating of any governor in the United States.

Nearly one in four registered voters (24 percent) in Wyoming who were surveyed said they really didn’t have much of an opinion one way or the other about Mead.

Overall, Mead ranked right in the middle of the pack in terms of popularity, with 52 percent approving of his performance (tied with New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan), but only 23 percent disapproving (tied with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott).

Mind you, Mead has been governor in Wyoming for the same length of time as Brownback. Both were elected in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. Mead is also a grandson of another former Wyoming governor and U.S. Senator, Clifford Hanson, so it’s not like he’s a stranger in political circles.

Mead, who is also a Republican, won his first race with 66 percent of the vote and with 59 percent in his re-election bid.

Wyoming has, in fact, had some of the same kinds of budget shortfalls that have beset the Brownback administration in Kansas. State government in Wyoming operates on a two-year budget of about $3 billion, and this year state revenues could fall $240 to $510 million short of projections, according to a press release from Mead’s office.

But unlike Kansas, Wyoming is heavily dependent on revenues from the energy sector, and its problems are more related to downturns in the oil, gas and coal industries. And while Wyoming does have a huge “rainy day” fund for just such emergencies, Mead has nonetheless asked for some huge budget cuts that would be highly controversial in other states.

There are some who argue that’s a sign of success. After serving six years as Wyoming’s chief executive, apparently he hasn’t messed anything up so badly that it has caused huge numbers of people to dislike him. Sometimes in government, “not messing up” can be an ambitious goal.

Another theory is that the nature of Wyoming itself keeps state government out of the news. Wyoming covers more square miles than Kansas but has roughly the population of Johnson County. The people are so spread out, one colleague who used to work there said, there’s just a lot more passion and interest in local politics than in state government.

But Mead’s press secretary David Bush probably had the most plausible theory: It was a small-sample poll among only 127 respondents in Wyoming, leaving a margin of error of plus or minus 9 percentage points. Other recent polls with larger sample sizes have shown Mead’s approval rating much higher, he said.

“That being said, Governor Mead is grateful for the support he receives from the people of Wyoming and continues to work hard on their behalf,” Bush said.

Meanwhile, in case you’re wondering, Gov. Brownback ranked 44th on the indifference scale. Only 6 percent of those polled in Kansas said they had no opinion about him.

Lowest on that scale was Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, where all but 3 percent of those polled have at least formed an opinion of him.

Note: This story has been updated from an earlier version to include comments from Gov. Mead’s spokesman.