47% Have Unfavorable View of Napolitano

Friday, March 11, 2011
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Thanks to TSA airport pat-downs and the continuing debate over illegal immigration, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano remains one of the better-known - and most unpopular - members of President Obama's Cabinet.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 25% of Likely Voters have at least a somewhat favorable impression of Napolitano, down from 32% in June of last year. Forty-seven percent (47%) have an unfavorable opinion of the former Arizona governor, while 29% are not sure what they think of her. The new findings include seven percent (7%) with a Very Favorable view of Napolitano and 29% with a Very Unfavorable one. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

In early December 2008, just after Obama appointed Napolitano to her current position, 30% of voters had a favorable opinion of her, while 25% did not. But 43% didn’t know her well enough to voice an opinion.

Like many other Cabinet secretaries, however, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood is an unknown to a sizable number of voters. Eighteen percent (18%) have a favorable impression of him, with five percent (5%) who view him Very Favorably. LaHood is regarded unfavorably by 32%, including 16% with a Very Unfavorable opinion. But 50% of voters offer no opinion of him at all.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on March 4-5, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Forty-two percent (42%) of Democrats have a favorable impression of Napolitano, while 75% of Republicans and 52% of unaffiliated voters view her unfavorably.

A sizable number of voters think the government is not paying enough attention to the possible threat of domestic Islamic terrorism. Most voters still worry, too, about homegrown terrorist attacks.

Little is being said on Capitol Hill about immigration reform these days, but voters remain strongly convinced that border control should come first. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of voters think the current policies and practices of the federal government encourage illegal immigration.

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of voters would rather go through the full-body scanner at the airport than be subjected to a full body pat-down by TSA employees.

LaHood, a former Republican congressman from Illinois, is viewed favorably by just 16% of voters from his own party. Twenty-eight percent (28%) of Democrats and 11% of unaffiliated voters share that opinion.

Those in the Political Class have a much more favorable opinion of both Cabinet members than Mainstream voters.

Out of all the cabinet members polled so far, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the most popular: 60% of voters have favorable view of her, and 30% do not. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is viewed favorably by 44% and unfavorably by 34%.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is a top player on the administration's economic team, but more than one-third of voters now say they don't know enough about him to venture an opinion of the longtime government official. Attorney General Eric Holder, too, is an unknown political figure to slightly more than one-third of voters. Both men are viewed favorably by just one-in-four voters, however.

Similarly, most voters are not familiar with the Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

The new national health care law has made Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius one of the most powerful women in America, but nearly half the country’s voters don’t seem to know who she is either.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

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http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_ ... napolitano