Politics

Gallup poll shows few voters supporting incumbent representative primarily because they think they are doing a good job

Alexis Levinson Political Reporter
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Incumbents in Congress this election season are having to deal with the stinging realization that a lot of the people who voted them into office and will be voting for them again this November are not doing so necessarily because they think they are doing a good job.

A Gallup poll released today showed that only 12% of people who plan to vote Democrat in November are doing so primarily because they think their incumbent representative is doing a good job. For Republicans, the number is 11%.

But political guru Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics is skeptical of the poll’s findings, essentially saying that many of those who participated in the poll are — intentionally or unintentionally — masking their true motivation for voting for a particular candidate.

“What people say about their motivations often differs from the real motives,” he told The Daily Caller in an e-mail. “Party identification is much stronger for most voters than they recognize. It is a perceptual screen, through which they interpret the political world. I don’t put much stock in the reported Gallup answers. Many respondents grab at a reasonable answer to explain their party ID-induced election choice.”

The poll showed that 30% of those who said they are voting for a Democrat are doing so because they always vote Democrat while 15% who said they plan to vote for a Republican are doing so because they always vote Republican.