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 19% See White House Job Offers As Anything Unusual
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Voters express only modest concern and hardly any surprise about the secret job offers made by the Obama White House to Democratic politicians in Colorado and Pennsylvania in hopes of getting them to drop their primary challenges of incumbent senators.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Voters finds that 61% say the job offers are a least somewhat important to how they will vote this November. However, only 32% say the issue is Very Important. That falls far below the importance attached to all 10 issues tracked regularly by Rasmussen Reports . Eighty-five percent (85%) consider the economy to be a Very Important issues. Number 10 on the list, abortion, is considered Very Important by 42%.
A plurality of voters (40%) believe that the job offers currently in the news involve both Republican and Democratic candidates. Only one-third of voters (34%) are aware that the job offers involves Democratic candidates, while seven percent (7%) say Republican candidates are involved. Nineteen percent (19%) aren't sure.
But 44% of voters also say the job offers made to keep candidates out of closely contested state primaries are fairly typical of what politicians normally do. Just 19% say that's not true, while 37% more are not sure.
"While politicians profess to be shocked at the job offers, voters see business as usual," notes Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports. In his new book, In Search of Self-Governance , Rasmussen explains, "Those in the world of professional politics ... want meaningful citizen involvement about as much as mischievous teenagers want chaperones at a high school dance."
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on June 5-6, 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.
Thirty-one percent (31%) of voters now rate the Obama administration as more ethical than most previous administrations, while 40% say the current White House is less ethical than most of its predecessors. Twenty-six percent (26%) say the Obama administration's ethics are about the same as those of previous presidencies.
Twenty-eight percent (28%) say the president himself is more ethical than most politicians, but 39% say he is less ethical . Just after his inauguration, 41% viewed Obama as more ethical, while just 16% said he was less ethical than most other politicians.
Nearly two-thirds (64%) of voters say they have been following news reports about the job offers, but only 31% have been following Very Closely. Thirty-four percent (34%) have not been following news stories about the job offers closely, if at all.
Pennsylvania Congressman Joe Sestak was the first to reveal the job offer made to him by the White House in hopes of him dropping his Democratic Primary challenge of incumbent Senator Arlen Specter. Sestak went on to beat Specter. Republican Senate nominee Pat Toomey now leads Sestak 45% to 38% in a general election match-up .
In Colorado, former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff has now come forward to say the White House offered him a job if he would drop his Democratic Primary challenge of incumbent Senator Michael Bennet. Romanoff has remained in the race. Both Democrats trail the top Republicans in the state's Senate contest . Colorado Democrats will pick their Senate nominee on August 10.
Despite the lack of interest on a national level, voters in individual states may hear more about the issue and perceive it in different ways. Pennsylvania voters have been following the Sestak offer more closely than voters nationwide, but they appear to be even less concerned by it .
Nationally, 76% of Republicans and 60% of voters not affiliated with either party say the job offers are at least somewhat important to how they will vote this November. Democrats are more closely divided in their level of concern.
Solid pluralities of both Democrats and Republicans agree that the job offers made to keep candidates out of closely contested state primaries is fairly typical of what politicians normally do. Unaffiliated voters are slightly less cynical.
Members of all three groups are unclear which party's candidates are involved in the current job offer controversy.
Political Class voters feel slightly more stronger than Mainstream Americans that the job offers are fairly typical of what politicians do.
When it comes to the current administration's ethics, the partisan lines are much clearer. Fifty-three percent (53%) of Democratic voters say the Obama administration is more ethical than most of its predecessors, but 72% of Republicans say it's less ethical than most. Among unaffiliated voters, 26% say the Obama administration is more ethical than most, 36% say less ethical, and another 36% say about the same.
The so-called Tea Party movement sprung up last year to protest the big government-high taxes policies of both political parties, and 46% of voters think that movement is good for the countr y. Thirty-one percent (31%) disagree and say it's bad for the country.
In recent months, government ethics and corruption has been battling with the economy as the top area of concern for voters among 10 issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports .
Only 17% of U.S. voters want their child to grow up to be a politician .
Just four percent (4%) say most politicians keep their campaign promises . Forty-five percent (45%) believe they deliberately make false promises to get elected.
Voters have consistently held a low opinion of Congress for years. By a more than two-to-one margin, voters think high congressional reelection rates are the result of election rules that are "rigged to benefit members of Congress."
Forty-one percent (41%) say a group of people selected at random from the phone book would do a better job addressing the nation's problems than the current Congress.
Most voters believe it would be better for the country if most of the current members of Congress were not elected this November.