http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=05375EC5-E69D-4E62-82B7-7C2FD15E6049 Poll: Why incumbents should worry
By: Jonathan Topaz
May 14, 2014 06:21 AM EDT
American voters are filled with more anti-incumbent sentiment than in any election year in more than 20 years, a new poll says.
According to the Gallup survey, only 22 percent of registered voters believe that most members of Congress deserve reelection and 72 percent believe they don’t. If the results hold in November, the “deserve re-election” figure will be the lowest mark since Gallup began tracking the question in 1992.
In particular, only 16 percent of independent voters say most lawmakers deserve to be reelected. This mark is compared with 28 percent of Democrats and 22 percent of Republicans.
Still, 50 percent of registered voters say their personal member of Congress deserves to be reelected.
Congress has a 15 percent approval rating, according to the latest Gallup congressional approval rating survey conducted May 8-11. It has an 80 percent disapproval rating.
Gallup has calculated that there is a correlation between the level of voters who think that most lawmakers deserve reelection and congressional turnover rates during election years. If the low percentage mark holds in November, the report says, incumbents might perform worse this November compared to previous years.
The poll was conducted April 24-30 with 1,336 registered voters on landlines and cellphones. The margin for error is plus-or-minus three points.
