Grassley, Harkin drop to all-time lows
Approval for U.S. Sens. Charles Grassley and Tom Harkin has fallen again in recent months, to new all-time lows, according to the Iowa Poll.
Iowans' approval of Grassley and Harkin has been on the wane for a year and has not rebounded since dipping below their previous all-time lows in September.
Grassley's approval sank to 54 percent in the new survey, from 57 percent in November.
Grassley, a Republican who is running for a sixth term this year, has taken a hit from within his own party. Republican approval for Grassley fell to 68 percent in the new poll, down from 76 percent in the November Iowa Poll and from 80 percent in September.
Some Republicans criticized Grassley in August for negotiating with Democrats on health care legislation. Grassley is unopposed so far for the June 3 GOP primary. Three Democrats are vying to challenge him.
Harkin's approval slid to 51 percent, from 54 percent in November. The decline came from a drop in support among political independents, from 52 percent to 44 percent. President Barack Obama, a Democrat, also lost approval from Iowa independents in the new poll.
Before last year, Grassley and Harkin hit their all-time low in 1991, another era when the economy was in recession. Grassley dipped to 62 percent and Harkin to 59 percent in the December 1991 Iowa Poll.
David Broder, a nationally syndicated Washington Post political columnist, said Grassley and Harkin are faring better than most elected officials around the country.
"If you're an incumbent anywhere these days and you're over 50 percent, you're in pretty good shape, relative to the world around you," Broder said.
Iowans are evenly divided between wanting to replace or keep their members of Congress, according to the new poll. Forty-five percent say they are inclined to vote to keep their federal incumbents and 45 percent say they are inclined to vote to replace them. Iowans are about as equally mixed regarding replacing their state elected officials.
But familiarity breeds compassion in this case. Almost 60 percent of Iowans say they are inclined to keep their local elected officials, while 30 percent say they are inclined to replace them.
The Iowa Poll was conducted for The Des Moines Register by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines and included telephone interviews with 805 Iowa adults. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points
Source: Des Moines Register
