Anti-incumbent mood reaches record high, poll shows

Less than a year after taking control of the House of Representatives, Republicans are facing strong headwinds against keeping the size of their majority. A record level of voters are ready to kick current members of Congress to the curb, a new survey shows.

As many as 76 percent of registered voters say most lawmakers do not deserve re-election, the new Gallup survey shows -- the highest percentage since Gallup began asking the question 19 years ago. Twenty percent said most members do deserve to be re-elected, which is a record low.

Voters are even losing patience with their own congressional representatives. Typically, voters have more favorable opinions of their own representative than Congress as a whole, and that is still true. But the percentage of voters who say their own lawmaker does not deserve re-election rose to 39 percent, just one point below the all-time high of 40 percent set in 2010. The Gallup poll, conducted Nov. 28 -- Dec. 1, showed that 53 percent said their own representative does deserve to be re-elected, down from 57 percent in May.

The sentiment may not be surprising, given several other polls showing that voters are unhappy with Congress after a year of constant gridlock. Since October, Congress' approval rating has sat at 9 percent -- a record low in the CBS News poll.

The Gallup poll shows that even Republicans are unhappy with the current Congress, though the GOP has control of the House and a sizable minority in the Senate -- 75 percent of Republicans say most congressmen don't deserve re-election, compared with 82 percent of independents and 68 percent of Democrats.

That could lead to trouble for House Republicans in 2012. It may be hard for the GOP to lose its strong majority in the House, but there are 60 Republican freshmen who may be particularly at risk, given they represent districts that supported President Obama in 2008.

The Gallup poll shows that since 2004, voters have been progressively more negative on the question of whether most congressmen should get another term. Before 2004, at least half of voters said most members deserved to be re-elected.

That sentiment translated into some significant congressional upheavals. In 2006, House Democrats wrested control from the GOP, which had controlled the House since 1994. But in Republicans managed to take back the House in 2010, flipping 63 seats from Democratic to Republican -- the largest seat gain by any party since 1948.