Anti-Incumbent Sentiment Nears 70 Percent A record 68 percent of respondents in a new poll say they are inclined to look for someone to vote for other than their current representative in Congress. Just 22 percent say they are inclined to re-elect their representative, according to the ABC News/Washington Post survey. In a poll by the Pew Research Center, 38 percent of respondents said their representative in Congress did not deserve to be re-elected in 2014. And a Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey found that just 34 percent of voters think their members of Congress deserve re-election, while 55 percent are willing to give a new person a chance. But the anti-incumbent sentiment is not likely to bring about sweeping changes in Congress, according to Alan Abramowitz of the University of Virginias Center for Politics, who said the fall elections are likely to result in minimal change in the party balance of power. The Rothenberg Political Report rates 383 House seats as safe and 13 as having a clear favorite, while the Cook Political Report has 358 seats safe. It is a curious fact of politics in the United States that Americans say their representatives dont deserve re-election, then go ahead and re-elect them. Its one thing to say your representative doesnt deserve to be re-elected, or even that youre open to voting him or her out, and actually doing so, Pew observed. Americans have been more favorably disposed toward their own representative than to Congress as a whole. Pew pointed out that in 2000, when Republican George W. Bush replaced Democrat Bill Clinton in the White House, fewer than 10 House incumbents were voted out of office. And in 2008, when Democrats won back the presidency with Barack Obama, fewer than 25 representatives lost their jobs.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 20:19:58 +0000
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