While 73
percent of Americans say most members of Congress do not deserve to
be reelected this November, Reason-Rupe
finds that 53 percent are yet still satisfied with the
candidates running for Congress in their own districts.
However, only 9 percent report being “very satisfied” while 44
percent are “somewhat satisfied.” Thirty-four percent are
unsatisfied (20% somewhat, 14% very), while 12 percent don’t have
an opinion.
In keeping with America’s federalist tradition, Americans are
more supportive of candidates closer to home. Fifty-seven percent
say they are satisfied with candidates for state level offices, and
a third are dissatisfied. Slightly more, 62 percent, are satisfied
with candidates for local level offices, and a quarter are
dissatisfied.
Strong Democratic (60%) and Republican (56%) partisan voters are
about equally likely to report satisfaction for their districts’
House and Senate candidates for the upcoming midterm elections.
Only 3 in 10 report dissatisfaction with state-level
candidates.
However, independent and
independent-leaning Republican voters are least likely to be happy
with candidates running in their districts. Instead, 53 percent of
non-partisan independents and 48 percent of independent-leaning
Republican voters say they are dissatisfied with the
House and Senate candidates running in their districts.
Independent-leaning Democrats are similar to strong Democrats with
only 30 percent dissatisfied.
Similarly at the state-level, pluralities of Independents and
independent leaning-Republicans are dissatisfied (roughly 46%) with
state level candidate options, while about 4 in 10 are satisfied.
Conversely, majorities (6 in 10) of strong partisans are satisfied
with state-level candidate choices, and 27 percent are
dissatisfied.
Independents are more supportive of local-level candidates. Both
partisan and independent leaners are satisfied with candidates for
local level offices—roughly 60 to 70 percent. About a quarter are
dissatisfied.
Only at the local level do a plurality (48%) of non-partisan
independents report satisfaction with candidate options, with a
third dissatisfied.
Taking a closer look at who these dissatisfied voters are
reveals they tend to come disproportionately from independent and
independent-leaning Republican voters, are more male (57%), and are
more likely to favor
smaller government and free market solutions to complex economic
problems.
These results comport with oft-found
survey results that Americans dislike Congress but like
their own member of Congress. They also demonstrate that candidates
running closer to home receive higher marks than federal-level
candidates.
These data also suggest that Republican
candidates must deal with more unpredictable voters, as
independent-leaning Republicans are considerably less happy with
their candidates than independent-leaning Democrats and partisan
voters.
The Reason-Rupe national telephone poll, executed
by Princeton Survey Research Associates International,
conducted live interviews with 1004 adults on cell phones (503) and
landlines (501) October 1-6, 2014. The poll’s margin of error
is +/-3.8%. Full poll results can be found here including
poll toplines (pdf)
and crosstabs (xls).
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