Voters watching the ballooning lobbying and congressional bribery scandals have reached a consensus of opinion: Both parties are performing wretchedly.
That assessment, however, is unlikely to have a major impact on the fall elections as the electorate is following other issues far more closely. While the unhappiness with Congress continues to grow, the reasons have more to do with the Iraq war and other issues than with ethical lapses.
According to figures released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, only 30 percent of those polled approved of the job being done by the Republican leadership and 32 percent approved of how Democratic leaders were doing their job.
“Both of those [approval ratings] are as low as we’ve measured since (President) Bush took office,” said Michael Dimock, associate director at the center. The results, which have a margin of error rate of plus or minus 3 percent, were based on a poll of 1,500 people from June 14 to 19.
The overall ratings reflect an accumulation of factors far beyond the lobbying scandals. The center has been polling every month to measure public interest and, of all the issues capturing voter attention, the lobbying scandals are near the bottom of the list.
Of those surveyed, the majority were very interested in gas prices (58 percent) and the Iraq war (37 percent) Dimock said. While some 18 percent were closely following news on the November elections, only 14 percent were specifically following news on the lobbying scandals — making lobbying the second-lowest rated topic.
Part of the reason for the lack of interest, Dimock said, is that the public is not surprised.
“We asked people whether they think that the recent reports on lobbying and bribery are isolated incidents or whether this kind of behavior is common in congress and 81 percent said this is common,” said Dimock. That skepticism has gotten worse in recent years, he said.
Though twice as many respondents thought the Republicans were more involved than the Democrats in corruption and bribery (31 percent vs. 14 percent), even more did not make a distinction.
“Thirty-four percent volunteered, without any prompting, that both of [the parties] are equally at fault,” Dimock told The Examiner, adding that that number would likely have been much higher if it had been offered as an option in the poll.
“The general public sentiment is that both sides stink,” Dimock said.
In a very tight election, however, even the relatively limited concern triggered by ethical questions could make a difference.
“People want someone that they can look at and know they are going to be ethical and they are going to follow the law,” said Morgan Felchner, editor of Campaign and Elections Magazine. “It does have an impact, especially if it comes down to two candidates that are pretty close on everything else.”
