Field Poll Shows Californians Disapprove of Congress--But a Look Under the Hood Shows Partisan Divide and Republicans Are Biggest Losers

There is a huge partisan divide with Democrats approving Democrats in Congress 48% to 37% and Republicans disapproving 19% to 66%.

When it comes to Republicans in Congress, Republican voters disapprove by 53% to 29% and Democrats are disapproving by 16% to 70%. So, by a pretty hefty margin Republicans are unhappy with their own party members in Congress.

Those not registered with the Democrats or Republicans are much more disapproving of Republicans in Congress, by a margin of 68% to 14%, compared with the 52% to 30% disapproval they have of Democrats. With these voters who are for the most part not registered with a party, the so called independent voters, the Democrats have about a 16 point advantage.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer

Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for the first time has more California registered voters indicating they disapprove of her performance (40%) than approving (35%), with a full 25% saying they have no opinion on the matter.

Once again, there is a stark partisan divide. Pelosi gets support from Democrats by 48% to 26%, but is seen as Darth Vader by Republicans, approved by only 19% of them and disapproved by 61%.

And the War in Iraq looms, as she is only narrowly approved 43% to 40% in the strongly Democratic San Francisco Bay Area. In the slightly less Democratic Los Angeles County area, she has a 40% to 28% approval with a full 32% not having any opinion. She fares worst in the Republican "other Southern California" region.

Senator Feinstein is approved by 51% of California's registered voters and disapproved by 31%. This is a dip from her 56% approval to 28% disapproval in March, shortly after winning re-election by a large margin. But it is statistically a carbon copy of her July of 2006 and June of 2005 ratings and very close to her 25 year average.

No surprises here under the hood: She's approved 66% to 16% by Democrats, and 50% to 30% by non-partisan/others. The only disapproval here is with the state's Republicans by 34% to 52%.

Senator Boxer has a 44% to 35% approval rating, down from the last two surveys of August (48% to 33%) and March (54% to 31%), but the same as July of 2006 and within the range of averages doing back to 1993 when she was first elected to the Senate.

There is a partisan divide here as well with Democrats approving Boxer 63% to 17%, Republicans disapproving by 59% to 22% and the non-partisan/others in her favor 40% to 31%. Once again, the Republicans are the odd man out.

Conclusion--If There is One

There are striking parallels between the Field Poll and the national results of the national Gallup Poll released in August in which 18% of Americans approved of Congress.

Gallup reported:

"Americans' evaluations of the job Congress is doing are usually not that positive -- the vast majority of historical approval ratings have been below 50%. The high point was 84% approval one month after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when Americans rallied behind the federal government. Since then, Congress' approval ratings have generally exhibited the same downward trajectory seen in those for President George W. Bush. Currently, 32% of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing as president, a far cry from the record-high 90% he received in September 2001. Bush's current job approval rating is just three percentage points above his lowest.

"There was a slight interruption in the downward trend in congressional approval ratings at the beginning of this year when party control changed hands from the Republicans to the Democrats following last fall's midterm elections. In January 2007, 35% of Americans approved of Congress, a significant increase from the 21% who approved of Congress in December 2006. That December rating tied the lowest in the 12 years the Republicans controlled Congress from 1995 to 2006."

For some time legislative bodies as a whole have not fared well in the eyes of the voters--that includes not just the Congress, but the state legislature as well. The legislative process is a messy one and neither the gridlock nor the sausage making compromises needed in a closely divided body are all that appealing sights. It is also a truism that while voters despise these institutions, they love (maybe too strong a word) their own representatives.

Not a bad place for California Democrats to be. The Field Poll is the oldest poll in the golden state and is very well respected. Combine today’s results with those that show a Democratic pick up in the Senate and House nationally, and some of the weaknesses Republicans have with their California Congress Members Doolittle and others under investigations and Democrats should do well in 2008 about a year from now with a big turnout in a Presidential year.