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."
Sunday, May 23, 2010
After receiving a small boost in ratings from their party's voters last month following the passage of the national health care law, Democratic leaders in Congress now earn favorability marks more in line with those found in previous months.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Voters shows just 35% now share a favorable opinion of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, down eight points from April. Fifty-seven percent (57%) view the San Francisco Democrat unfavorably, up from 52% last month. The new findings include 14% with a Very Favorable opinion and 48% with a Very Unfavorable one.
Despite this month's drop, ratings for Pelosi are still higher than they were in March and are identical to those found in January. In March , prior to passage of the health plan, Pelosi was viewed unfavorably by 64% of voters, which tied a high reached last August.
The number of Democrats who view Pelosi favorably fell from 78% to 65% this month.
Twenty-five percent (25%) of all voters view Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid favorably, down slightly from 29% a month ago. Fifty-three percent (53%) view the Nevada Democrat unfavorably, showing virtually no change this month.
Less than half (47%) of Democrats view Reid favorably, down from 51% last month.
Reid's support remains frozen again this month around 40%, while two of his chief Republican opponents continue to draw over 50% of the vote in Nevada's U.S. Senate race .
The national survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on May 18-19, 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 .
House Minority Leader John Boehner receives favorable marks from 23% of voters, while 42% hold an unfavorable impression of him. Last month, his numbers were 27% favorable, 37% unfavorable. However, 36% share no opinion of the Republican, representing little change over the past year.
Even among voters in his own party, 31% are not sure what they think of Boehner, while only 30% hold a favorable impression of him.
As for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 30% hold a favorable opinion and 38% share an unfavorable view. Both numbers have shown little change over the past several months, though his unfavorable rating is up three points from the beginning of the year. Still, one-in-three voters (33%) are not sure how they view the Republican from Kentucky.
Republicans are fairly divided on their opinions of McConnell.
Tuesday's primaries were more proof of the anti-incumbency mood felt in many parts of the nation, and many voters continue to feel a randomly selected sample of people from the phone book could do a better job than their elected representatives in Congress.
Republican candidates now hold a five-point lead over Democrats in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot , a further narrowing of the gap between the two parties to the smallest margin this year.
In polls conducted every week since the health care law was passed in March, support for repeal among voters has stayed in a very narrow range from a low of 54% to a high of 58%.