Poll: Middle Class May Bring Dems Victory
Survey Indicates Massive Move By Middle Class Away From GOP; Iraq War, Economy Cited As Top Causes
-
Photo
(CBS/AP)
-
Interactive
Election Briefing Book
Info on the races, voting statistics, and more from the CBS News Election & Survey Unit.
-
News Tools
Hot House Races
An overview of some of the most competitive races for the U.S. House of Representatives.
-
News Tools
Senate Showdowns
An analysis of all the U.S. Senate races, from Maine to Hawaii.
If the tally bears this out a week from next Tuesday, Republican control of the House of Representatives could become a victim of the Iraq war. Voters rated the war and the economy as their top issues in the poll released Thursday.
Middle-class voters deserted the Democrats a dozen years ago, but the promise of their return is giving the party its best chance to reclaim the House of Representatives since the Republicans swept Democrats from power in 1994. The AP-AOL survey found voters leaning considerably more toward Democrats in the final weeks of the campaign.
Democrats need to gain 15 seats in the House and six in the Senate to control Congress. All 435 House seats and 33 in the 100-member Senate are up for election.
Early this month, Democrats had a 10 percentage-point advantage when voters were asked whether they would vote for the Democratic or Republican candidates in their congressional districts. The Democratic edge is now 19 percentage points.
The AP-AOL News telephone poll of 2,000 adults, 970 of whom are likely voters, was conducted by Ipsos Oct. 20-25.
Dismissing talk of a sour outlook for the Republicans, the House's leader, Speaker Dennis Hastert, cited signs of a strong economy and rejected on Thursday the Democratic argument that voters should fire him and his rank-and-file.
“Things are looking pretty good, and I don't think anybody would really want to change that at this time,” he said.
In the minority, Democrats are arguing for a change in leadership and trying to tap into intense public anxiety about the Iraq war as well as discontent with Bush and the Republicans in charge of the House and Senate.
The 2006 election has been likened to 1994, when backlash against the controlling Democrats triggered a change in power and ushered in an era of new rulers, the Republicans.
Twelve years later, the tables appear poised to turn, in part because, as an AP analysis shows, fickle middle-class voters are returning to the Democratic Party after abandoning it in 1994.
Back then, middle-class voters — those earning less than $75,000 (euro59,000) a year and those who have graduated from high school or have some college education — fled the Democrats in droves, helping Republicans capture dozens of Democratic-held House seats to seize control for the first time in decades.
Democrats recovered some of that lost ground in the following years, but they never fully regained their grasp on the middle class. In the intervening elections such as this one, when the president was not on the ticket, Democrats and Republicans have split the House vote among middle-income and middle-education groups.
This fall, however, the AP-AOL News poll shows that Democrats have an advantage, in some cases in the double digits, among middle-class voters.
“I feel like the Republicans have forgotten the middle class,” says Joseph Altland, 73, a retired teacher, who is a registered Republican but says he is considering becoming an independent. He bemoans rising insurance costs and utility bills. “The guys I golf with, we're in the middle class. We're getting hurt,” he said.
A majority of middle-class voters now favor Democrats to control the House and say that Democrats best represent their most closely held beliefs. They trust Democrats more than Republicans to handle the situation in Iraq, which most of them view as a mistake. The war is this voting group's most important issue. The economy and health care are close behind.
Like voters of all stripes, the middle class is angry with Bush and congressional Republican leaders.
Democrats say the shift is not a surprise.
“We're the ones who understand the middle-class squeeze,” said Congressman Rahm Emanuel, the head of the House Democrats' campaign effort. “Democrats are talking about middle-class tax cuts and Republicans are talking about staying the course.”
But Congressman Phil English challenged that statement, saying: “Middle-class voters are no more likely to gravitate to the Democrats in any sustained way than chickens would embrace Colonel Sanders. The Republicans, however imperfectly, have done the better job of embracing middle-class needs.”
©MMVI, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/242/index.html
Hastert says, %u201CThings are looking pretty good, and I don't think anybody would really want to change that at this time." He must be smoking crack! Between the corruption, fraud, and influence peddeling of Abramoff, DeLay, Scanlon, Burns, Reed, and Ney; Bush's buddy Ken Lay and the Enron fiasco; the terrible mismanagement of Katrina; plus Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Scooter Libby, and Rove lying to get us into Iraq, running lawless with warrantless surveillance, torture, and the CIA leaks, while making Halliburton rich from ripping off the U.S. and failing to supply our troops; plus trying to sell out port security to an arab company; and the sleeze and cover-up of Foley, Reynolds, Boehner, Shimkus, Alexander and Hastert... the republicans have had their turn to show us their idea of government. Stop the greed, the lies, and stop giving America a bad name!
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! It is TIME FOR A CHANGE!!
Youbetya, Denny, if you're a member of the rich elite. While you & your Republican buddies are busy playing the role of Robin Hood in reverse, (raiding the Treasury by way of tax cuts for the benefit of the rich, attempting to drain the Social Secerity Trust Fund by way of personal investment accounts, ect.) those of the Middle Class & the poor are desperately battling to feed their children & provide for their health-care - a battle they are slowly but surely losing. But then you don't want to bother beautiful Republican minds with such unpleasantness. Well, let em eat cake! huh Denny?
WE NEED TO DEMAND TRUE CAMPAIGN REFORM AND TERM LIMITS FOR OFFICE HOLDERS. DEMAND THESE OF THE PEOPLE WE ELECT.
About the polite fiction that campaign contributions have nothing to do with how our Congressional members vote on and propose legislation. We hear time and again that the $$$ doesn%u2019t buy votes.
Let%u2019s consider a baseball game. A batter steps up to the plate, but before he steps into the batter%u2019s box he pauses and reaches into his back pocket for his wallet. He opens it and pulls out a large stack of bills. He peels off $100 bills, one after the other after another and gently tucks the thick wad in the shirt pocket of the umpire. He has not said a word. He steps into the batter%u2019s box and the first pitch is drilled dead center between the knees and shoulders and between the outside corners of home plate. The umpire cries out, %u201CBALL ONE%u201D
It%u2019s the same in Congress, people. These politicians see their job as not representing you and me and upholding the Constitution that they swore to. Their job is to get reelected and stay on the gravy train. And why not, they think? It%u2019s a sweet deal. Great pay, fantastic pension plan, cushy offices, limos, perks galore, lobbyists kissing up to them all the time, and more.
So they play us for suckers. They shake hands and kiss babies while pick pocketing the average middle class person and handing that money over to their man standing in the batter%u2019s box.
Had enough? Then get off your keester and get down to the polls and CLEAN HOUSE!
Can anyone one say "bias" or "conflict of interest".
Let American's decide by voting on November 7th..... instead of these polls run by known liberal MSM outlets..........
They are pushing this propaganda in order to depress GOP turnout.......nice try
STAY FOCUSED AMERICA IT IS ABOUT TO GET TOUGH. WE HAVE A FEW MORE DAYS OF INTENSE ATTACK ADS, SMOKE SCREENS, DIVISION OF ELECTORATE, DECEPTION, MISREPRESENTATION, AND LIES, TO ENDURE BEFORE WE CAN UNCOVER THE ELECTION FRAUD, RECOUNT THE VOTE, AND THROW THESE CRIMINALS OUT OF OFFICE. THEN WE CAN START HEALING AMERICA.
Vote for major change Nov. 7th! And stay informed. Knowledge is power!
Too many Americans have become slaves to corporate America with long hours and meager rewards. The current economic boom is not showing up in the paychecks of middle America. Paul Krugman in the Times has been pointing this out for years and the middle class is starting to listen. All those billions given to the rich, corporations and the oil companies, would reduce the middle class's tax burden to a small fraction of what it is today. The EU countries do it without the monstrous economic tax-producing engine that the US enjoys.
--Elected leaders who genuinely lead and who are responsive to the people who elected them.
--Leaders with the the testicular fortitude to create legislation that reigns in the flow of tax dollars to the ultra-rich.
--Leaders who will create legislation that not only mandates a living wage, put places a cap on corporate executive compensation.
--Leaders with the stones to reign in multi-billion-dollar corporate profits. When Exxon-Mobile can rake in record profits for 4 quarters in a row, at a time when gas prices are declining, there's something seriously wrong.
--Leaders who will place the interests of the middle class first, and the interests of the ultra-wealthy last.
--Leaders who are interested in genuinely protecting the homeland, not engaging in needless war over oil. Protecting the homeland begins AT HOME, not in some godforsaken desert.
--Leaders who recognize that our real enemies are NOT ***, illegal aliens, "liberals," and the boogyman-of-the-month.
In short, we need CHANGE in Washington. And the only way we'll acheive that change is to get our heads out of our collective butts and VOTE.
Sheesh, this political correctness has gone WAY too far...
I certainly don't.
If they can't pursuade the middle class to vote for them so they can retain power, they'll simple destroy the middle class! Seems logical enough. I wonder if that is the brain child of Karl Rove???
1. Eliminate political bias in the White House. The President's job is to represent ALL Americans, not just the ultra-rich.
2. Reverse outsourcing of American jobs.
3. Reinstate the system of government that was intended for this nation: President Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 - Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit: That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
-
by darkfyreaol
October 29, 2006 10:18 AM PST
- My last comment was intended to show that we are indeed becoming slaves of the government. The American people are crying out in protest - 63% of America is crying foul with what is going on in the White House. And the President has decided that they are not worthy enough to breathe the same air as he.
-
Reply to this comment
-
See all 33 Comments