These poll numbers were released earlier today by Rasmussen Reports -- "an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information."
Just 37% Say Their Congress Member Deserves Reelection
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Incumbent members of Congress don't exactly get a vote of confidence from their constituents in a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Just 27% of Likely U.S. Voters think their representative in Congress is the best possible person for the job, down six points from November of last year. Only 37% think their local congressional representative deserves reelection, compared to 42% who felt that way last fall.
Midterm elections are less than three months away, and most Congress members are home for the August recess, working hard to sell themselves for reelection.
But just 23% of voters think it would be better for the country if most incumbents in Congress were reelected in November. Sixty-two percent (62%) say it would be better if most congressional incumbents were defeated. These numbers represent very little change from voter sentiments in February .
Forty-four percent (44%) say their member of Congress is not the best possible person for the job. Another 29% are not sure.
Thirty-nine percent (39%) say their local representative does not deserve to be reelected. One-in-four voters (24%) are undecided.
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters U.S. Voters was conducted on August 13-14, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC . See methodology .
Voters have expressed unhappiness over a number of the current Congress' major initiatives, including the national health care bill and the bailouts of the auto and financial industries .
Nearly two-out-of-three U.S. voters (65%) remain at least somewhat angry at the current policies of the federal government , including 40% who are Very Angry. Fifty-nine percent (59%) also continue to feel that neither Republican nor Democratic political leaders have a good understanding of what is needed today.
Eighty-three percent (83%) of Republicans and 72% of voters not affiliated with either major party think it would be better for the country if most incumbents in Congress were defeated in November. Perhaps surprisingly, just a plurality (45%) of Democratic voters believe it would be better if most members of the Democratic-controlled Congress were reelected.
Unaffiliated voters are more critical than both Democrats and Republicans of their current representatives in Congress and feel more strongly that they don't deserve reelection.
The Political Class is much more comfortable with the status quo. Eighty-seven percent (87%) of the Political Class says it would be better for the country if most incumbents in Congress were reelected this fall. Seventy-seven percent (77%) of Mainstream voters disagree and say it would be better for most to be defeated.
Most Political Class voters also feel their current congressional representative is the best person for the job and believe strongly that he or she should be reelected. Roughly half of Mainstream voters don't share either view.
The majority of all voters nationwide believe the Democratic congressional agenda is extreme , while a plurality describes the Republican agenda as mainstream. Most also think it is at least somewhat likely that Republicans will win control of both houses of Congress in the upcoming elections, and nearly half say there will a noticeable change in the lives of Americans if this happens.
Most voters in the country believe, too, that President Obama and the average Democrat in Congress are more liberal, politically speaking, than they are . Just 26% think Obama shares the same political views they have, and only 23% believe that of Democrats in Congress. But then only 26% think the average Republican in Congress has about the same views politically as they do.
Seventy-two percent (72%) of Republican voters continue to feel that GOP members of Congress have lost touch with the party base throughout the nation over the past several years. By contrast, 61% of Democratic voters think their representatives in Congress have done a good job of representing Democratic values over the past several years.
Republicans now hold a record 12-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot and are trusted more by voters on most key issues.