WSJ: Polls Shows More Americans Favor Democratic Candidate for Congress

[NVMojo]

HARRIS POLL

August 12, 2006

A new poll shows an uptick in support for a Democratic candidate in the next Congressional elections.

When asked whom they would vote for "if elections for Congress were held today," 45% of U.S. adults said they would vote for the Democratic candidate and 30% would vote for the Republican, the Harris Interactive poll shows. In a similar poll in April, 41% supported a Democratic candidate for Congress and 37% supported a Republican.

The telephone survey, conducted Aug. 4-7, 2006, also revealed a gender gap in Congressional support: Of the 1,008 U.S. adults polled, 50% of women favored a Democratic candidate and 28% a Republican. Among men, 40% said they would vote for the Democrat candidate and 33% for the Republican.BUSH'S JOB RATING

When rating the overall job Congress is doing now, 77% of Americans said Congress is doing an "only fair or poor" job, compared with 21% who rated it "excellent or pretty good." That's up from May, when 18% of those polled gave Congress a positive rating and 80% gave it a negative rating.

In addition, the poll showed President Bush's approval rating was unchanged from July: Two-thirds of Americans said he is doing an "only fair or poor" job, while 34% said he is doing an "excellent or pretty good" job as president.


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http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB115530900265233369-4YyNPGwPyJ1smBROuxGUvEumVpw_20060819.html?mod=blogs

[cyclezealot]

1. The way Repug legislatures have gerrymandered districts,

Don't count on fair distribution of those Democratic voters, is my fear.

[bluestateguy]

2. I have some issues with the way Harris does polls

First, they don't do straight approve/disapprove like most other pollsters (save Zogby). Harris uses "excellent, pretty good, fair and poor". Responders saying "fair" are counted as disapprovers, when in fact, a disambiguation of those responders might be more mixed in terms of their approve/disapprove categorization. So that methodology would seem to push Bush's ratings down a little bit more than they really are. On the other hand, Harris excludes the "not sure" responses. Does this mean that Bush has a 34% rating among those who expressed a firm opinion? If so, then his affirmative approval could even be a little lower if you count the "not sure" responders, as most other pollsters do. Excluding the "not sures" could push Bush up a bit higher than he really is.

[bigdarryl]

3. Polls

The only problem is this poll was done before the terror scare. i want to see a poll after all the terror stuff.