Pelosi’s Numbers in the Toilet!
The Field Research Corporation has a new poll out that has some shocking numbers. Congress is not popular and Pelosi couldn’t even win a “Best Grandma With Too Much Make-Up” award. Truly shocking!
The perception that California voters have of the job that the U.S. Congress is doing now matches its lowest approval levels of the past two decades.
Voters in this state also now view Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi more negatively than positively, but not to the same extent as the overall Congress.
So what does that tell you?: That Republicans don’t like her for what she is doing and Democrats don’t like her because she isn’t doing it fast enough. For policy guidance these kind of “how is Congress doing?” polls are useless, except as catnip for third-party activists. Somewhere a George Wallace-Ross Perot-Jesse Ventura wannabe is taking heart. Now if he only had some money.
During the 1990s California voters had a largely dim view of the job that Congress was doing. For the most part sizeable pluralities or majorities disapproved of the performance by the nation’s lawmakers.
This long standing negative perception of the Congress became more favorable during the early part of this decade, with more voters offering a positive than negative assessment on the order of five to four or five to three.
However, more recently voter perceptions of the Congress have turned downward to a point where those holding an unfavorable view of the Congress has included sizeable majorities in most Field Poll surveys conducted over the past three years.
The latest Field Poll completed earlier this month produced a measurement on par with its lowest rating in thirty separate measurements conducted over the past two decades. At present, just 23% approve while 66% disapprove of the job the Congress is doing.
Democrats and non-partisans hold the Congress in disfavor by roughly two to one margins, while a huge 83% of Republicans disapprove and just 9% approve.
All this tells me is that there are some California Democrats who have low standards.
Pelosi does a little better.
Voter assessments of her were initially much more positive than negative when she became Speaker, but became more divided in subsequent surveys conducted in mid-2007 and 2008. Earlier this year, following the election of Barack Obama as President, 48% viewed her favorably and 35% unfavorably.
The current poll finds that more Californians are now rating Pelosi more negatively than positively, with 34% approving and 44% disapproving of the job she is doing. The Speaker is still viewed positively by Democrats, 51% to 23%. However, California Republicans overwhelmingly see her in a negative light – 79% disapprove and 7% approve. Non-partisans are about evenly split.
So everyone is dissatisfied with Congress and its leader. Shocking!