Congressional Favorability Ratings

57% View Pelosi Unfavorably, But That’s An Improvement

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi got a bit of reprieve from the voters after a tumultuous August recess for most members of Congress.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 57% of U.S. voters still have an unfavorable opinion of Pelosi, but that’s down seven points from late last month when she hit an all-time high in terms of unpopularity. This puts Pelosi’s unfavorables back to where they were in February.

Forty-two percent (42%) have a very unfavorable view of the San Francisco Democrat, down from 46% in August.

Thirty-four percent (34%) of voters view Pelosi favorably, but just 13% have a very favorable opinion of her. Still, that’s the highest level of very favorable support she has enjoyed since March.

Women have a more favorable regard for the speaker than men do.

Predictably, 66% of Republicans voters have a very unfavorable view of Pelosi, although just 29% of Democrats conversely regard her very favorably. Most voters not affiliated with either party (51%) also have a very unfavorable opinion of the speaker.

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is also doing a little better with voters this month. Forty-nine percent (49%) have an unfavorable opinion of the Nevada senator, down from a high this year of 52% recorded last month and back to where he was in early February.

Still, only 27% view Reid favorably, with four percent (4%) very favorable. Interestingly, 25% still don’t know enough about Reid to have an opinion about him. This figure has been roughly the same for months despite his leadership role. By comparison, just nine percent (9%) aren’t sure what they think of Pelosi.

Reid is expected to face a tough reelection challenge next year. Rasmussen Reports will release its first numbers on Reid’s potential 2010 match-ups later today.

The numbers for his Republican counterpart, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McDonnell, remain relatively stable. Thirty-four percent (34%) have an unfavorable view of the Kentucky senator, with 15% very unfavorable, a slight improvement from last month but generally consistent with polling all year. Twenty-five percent (25%) have a favorable opinion of McConnell, including only eight percent (8%) with a very favorable view.

But 41% have no opinion about McConnell.

The other GOP congressional leader, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, has dropped to 41% in terms of unfavorables, his lowest rating of the year. Nineteen percent (19%) have a very unfavorable view of the House minority leader.

Twenty-one percent (21%) view Boehner favorably, including just three percent (3%) with a very favorable opinion. But 38% don’t know him well enough to have an opinion.

Fifty-one percent (51%) of voters believe Congress is too liberal while 22% hold the opposite view and say it is too conservative. Only 14% say the ideological balance of Congress is about right

Forty-two percent (42%) a group of people randomly selected from the phone book would do a better job than the current Congress, but 42% disagree.

Most Republican voters say their party’s representatives in Congress have lost touch with GOP voters nationwide over the past several years. But a solid plurality of Democrats says voters and congressmen from their party are about the same ideologically.

However, all political labels – except “being like Ronald Reaganâ€