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National leader John Key is opening up a big gap as the person New Zealanders want to see running the country.
After one week back in parliament, the first ONE News Colmar Brunton poll for the election year shows Key leading the preferred prime minister stakes wuth 36% while Clark is well behind on 27%.
The trend line also points in the wrong direction for Labour's popularity: National has found favour with a whopping 53% of respondents and Labour is barely holding ground at 34%.
Vying for the attention of the two main parties are New Zealand First, the Greens and the Maori Party who are all hoping to play kingmaker after this year's election.
In a significant result for the Greens, the party is back over the 5% threshold at 6%, while the other minor parties are still failing to register.
This is particularly worrisome for New Zealand First as without an electorate seat they would be out of parliament.
And while Clark's deputy Finance Minister Michael Cullen may have tucked plenty away to offer tax cuts in election year, economic uncertainty abroad is hitting home.
Just 28% believe their economic prospects will improve over the next year, the same proportion think things will stay the same, but 44% are negative about the economy.
With the number of optimists falling and the number of pessimists growing, it is not good news for Clark.
But ONE News political editor Guyon Espiner says the biggest enemy for Labour is the length the party has been in office. Typically, after three terms, it becomes harder to keep people engaged.
National was the only party in power for four terms between 1960 and 1972.
