Bush a Drag on Republican Midterm Prospects
Summary of Findings Nine months before the midterm elections, the Democrats hold a sizable lead in the congressional horse race and an advantage on most major issues. Democrats lead by 50%-41% among registered voters in the test ballot, which is little changed from last September (52%-40%). While retaining a huge advantage on traditional party strengths […]
Americans Taking Abramoff, Alito and Domestic Spying in Stride
Summary of Findings The public has been hardly stirred by the flurry of major Washington news in the early days of 2006. Jack Abramoff’s admission that he bribed members of Congress has sparked little interest, with just 18% paying very close attention to news reports on the disgraced Washington lobbyist. An overwhelming majority of Americans […]
Public Sours on Government and Business
Summary of Findings Americans express increasingly negative views of a wide range major institutions, reflecting strong discontent with national conditions. Over the past year, ratings have tumbled for the federal government and Congress. And it is not just Washington institutions that are being viewed less positively. Favorable opinions of business corporations are at their lowest […]
Plurality Now Sees Bush Presidency as Unsuccessful
Summary of Findings President George W. Bush’s poll numbers are going from bad to worse. His job approval rating has fallen to another new low, as has public satisfaction with national conditions, which now stands at just 29%. And for the first time since taking office in 2001, a plurality of Americans believe that George […]
Religion A Strength And Weakness For Both Parties
Summary of Findings Both major political parties have a problem with their approach toward religion, in the eyes of many Americans. More than four-in-ten say that liberals who are not religious have too much control over the Democratic Party, while an almost identical percentage says that religious conservatives have too much influence over the Republican […]
GOP Makes Gains Among The Working Class, While Democrats Hold On To The Union Vote
Last week’s historic split in the House of Labor was driven, at least in part, by disagreements over whether the AFL-CIO should be focusing more on union organizing drives or electoral politics. Much is at stake, not just for the union movement but also for the political parties. Working class voters are a key swing […]
Supreme Court’s Image Declines as Nomination Battle Looms
Summary of Findings With an aging Supreme Court possibly facing major changes, the court’s public image has eroded significantly. Currently, 57% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the Supreme Court, with 30% expressing an unfavorable view. In the past, favorable views of the court typically surpassed 70%; even in January 2001, shortly after the […]
The Dean Activists: Their Profile and Prospects
Introduction Although former Vermont governor Howard Dean failed to win the Democratic presidential nomination, his campaign left a strong imprint on the political world. It assembled a network of over a half-million active supporters and contributors, raised over $20 million in mostly small donations online, and demonstrated the power of the internet as a networking […]
Disapproval of GOP Congressional Leaders, But Democrats Fare No Better
Summary of Findings The American public is not happy with the nation’s political leadership. President Bush’s approval rating remains below 50%, and just 39% approve of the job performance of Republican congressional leaders. Despite the paltry ratings for GOP leaders, however, Democrats have failed to benefit. The public has about the same low regard for […]
Politics and Values in a 51%-48% Nation
Summary of Findings This report is an excerpt from chapter one of the book Trends 2005, produced by the Pew Research Center. Public attitudes on national security are now much more strongly associated with partisan affiliation than they were in the late 1990s. A comprehensive study of long-term public values finds that beliefs about national […]
Party Affiliation: What it is and What it Isn’t
During every presidential election, questions arise over the results of political polls and how those surveys are conducted. This year’s hot topic is the partisan composition of the leading national polls. Politicians and pundits alike now scrutinize a survey sample’s partisan split as closely as the horse-race results. Surveys that are deemed to have “too […]
GOP the Religion-Friendly Party
Summary of Findings As the Republicans gather in New York to nominate George W. Bush for a second term, more Americans see the Republican Party than the Democratic Party as friendly toward religion. And most express comfort with President Bush’s reliance on his religious beliefs in making policy decisions. On the issue of gay marriage, […]
Democrats Gain Edge in Party Identification
The Democratic Party has achieved a small gain in party affiliation and holds a 33%-29% edge over the GOP in Pew surveys conducted in 2004. This represents a modest shift from the two year period following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, when the Republican Party had drawn virtually even with the Democrats. The current […]
Democratic Party Image Improvement
Summary of Findings Sen. John Kerry enters the Democratic convention next week bolstered by a number of favorable trends in public opinion, although he remains locked in a statistical tie for voter support with President George W. Bush. His party is dominant on key domestic issues and at least competitive with the Republicans on every […]
Democratic Candidates Face Southern Voters
Southern Democrats More Culturally Conservative, Not So Different Otherwise
The 2004 Political Landscape
Over the past four years, the American electorate has been dealt a series of body blows, each capable of altering the political landscape. The voting system broke down in a presidential election. A booming economy faltered, punctuated by revelations of one of the worst business scandals in U.S. history. And the country endured a […]
Support for Potential Military Action Slips to 55%
Summary of Findings A growing number of Americans oppose military action in Iraq, amid widespread concern over the potential negative consequences of war. For the first time since the Iraq debate intensified this summer, a majority of Democrats oppose the use of force to remove Saddam Hussein from power. And while a 55% majority still […]
Democrats Less Pleased with Party’s Performance
Survey Findings A year after Democrats took control of the Senate, the party’s rank-and-file give Democratic congressional leaders lower marks for performance than GOP adherents give their leadership. While 64% of Democrats approve of their leaders’ job performance, 80% of Republicans have a positive view of the job GOP leaders are doing. Consequently, the Democratic […]
Unusually High Interest In Bush’s State Of The Union
Introduction and Summary In the face of a struggling economy and the continuing war on terrorism, Americans begin 2002 upbeat about President George W. Bush’s job performance, his coming State of the Union address and the prospects for bipartisanship in Washington. Preventing future terrorist attacks and mending the economy are the biggest priorities this year. […]
Bush’s Base Backs Him to the Hilt
Introduction and Summary After three months in office, George W. Bush is doing about as well with the American public as did his predecessors, because Republicans love what they are seeing and Democrats are expressing only modest opposition to his stewardship of the country. Bush’s approval ratings among the GOP faithful are slightly higher than […]
