60% of voters say their incumbent does not deserve to return

60% of Voters Say Their Incumbent

Should Stay Home

By Dalia Sussman
The New York Times
10/27/10

In sobering news for incumbents in Congress, the latest New York Times/CBS News poll shows that a majority of voters say their own representatives do not deserve to return to office.

With less than a week before the midterm elections, about 6 in 10 voters say it is time to give someone new a chance to represent their district in Congress, the poll found. That figure is higher than it was in 1994, when Democrats last lost control of the House of Representatives.

As is usually the case, even more voters say that most members of Congress do not deserve re-election. An overwhelming 80 percent in the latest poll say so, about the same as in 1994.

More than 6 in 10 Republican and independent voters said they did not think that their own representative deserved re-election, while fewer than half of Democrats agreed.

The poll also finds that this year’s elections have grabbed the attention of a similar number of voters as the last midterm elections did, in 2006. More than 8 in 10 say they are paying attention to campaigns, including more than 4 in 10 who say they are paying a lot of attention.

Republicans are following the election more than Democrats or independents are. More than half of Republican voters say they are paying a lot of attention, compared with fewer than 4 in 10 Democrats or independents.

The poll also finds that attention to the campaign increases with age. Just 28 percent of voters under age 45 say they are paying a lot of attention, while nearly twice as many voters age 45 and older are. Older voters are historically more likely than young ones to vote in midterm elections.

The nationwide telephone poll was conducted Oct. 21-26 with 1,086 registered voters and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.