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

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

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By Frank D. Russo

The California Field Poll has released another part of it's current poll taken earlier in October and in many ways the results are an echo of what this venerable poll showed in August.

California registered voters disapprove of Congress by a margin of 64% to 22%--statistically about the same as the 66% to 20% disapproval registered in the August 24, 2007 poll by Field, and within the margin of error of the poll numbers in this release of 4.1%.

Field does not ask voters why they are dissatisfied with Congress as an institution. What is interesting is the partisan divide, and the numbers are quite telling throughout the survey, especially as we see the numbers as to how Democrats, Republicans, and "Non-partisan/others" break down as to the performance of Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

Democrats by a margin of 24% to 58% disapprove of Congress, perhaps a bit lower than in August when the numbers were 27% approval and 55% disapproval. Republicans are more harshly critical of Congress by a margin of 20% to 70%--this is actually a statistically significant improvement since August when it was 14% approval and 79% disapproval. The non-partisan others are disapproving by 22% to 63%, which more approving than in August when they were disapproving 65% to 17%.

In August, Mark DiCamillo, the Director of the Field Poll, had this to say in the San Francisco Chronicle:

"It's a historic low, and I think the main driver has to do with disappointment with the war. The reason Congress changed hands in the last election was to try to send a signal to change the administration's policy in Iraq. To this point, the Congress has not been at all effective in that regard." There is good reason to believe that is the case with these new numbers and why compared with August, Democrats, if anything, are more disapproving of Congress and Republicans and Others are less disapproving.

Democrats in Congress are approved 34% with disapproval at 51%. Republicans in Congress are fare much poorer, at 20% approval and 64% disapproval. That's a 14% gap in which registered voters in California view the Republicans more negatively.