<http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=275>
Public Disillusionment with Congress at Record Levels Anti-Incumbent Sentiment Echoes 1994 Released: April 20, 2006
The American public is angry with Congress, and this is bad news for the Republican Party. The belief that this Congress has accomplished less than its predecessors is markedly higher than at any point in the past nine years, and by a wide margin Republican leaders are blamed for this. Many more voters than in the recent past say the issue of partisan control of Congress will be a factor in their vote in November. And as has been the case since fall, voters are significantly more inclined to vote for Democrats than Republicans - by a 51% to 41% margin.
The public's strong appetite for change in Washington is seen both in the majority of voters who say they would like to see most members of Congress defeated in November (53%), and in the sizable minority who wants to see their representative turned out in the midterms (28%). Both measures reflect anti-incumbent sentiment not seen since late in the historic 1994 campaign, just before Republicans gained control of Congress. In recent elections, far fewer voters evinced a desire for change; in October 2002, just 38% said they did not want to see most members reelected and 19% said that about their own representative.
The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted among 1,501 Americans from April 7-16, finds that the Democrats maintain a large advantage in voting intentions for the fall. The Democrats' current 10-point lead is little changed from February (50%-41%), but there has been only a handful of occasions since 1994 when either party has held such a sizable advantage in the congressional horse race.
[...]
The Parties in a Word
Top-of-the-mind expressions of opinion about both parties tend to be more negative than positive. When asked what single word describes their impression of each party, pluralities for each party responded a negative or critical term. But the most common words mentioned tend to be descriptive rather than evaluative. By far, the single most common word for the Republican Party was "conservative" and for the Democratic Party, "liberal." Following these ideological labels was "fair," a term that some respondents meant as "even-handed" and others evidently meant to be tepid praise, if that. Similar numbers described each party as "good" or "very good."
Thematically, negative terms about the Republican Party largely address its perceived support for business and the wealthy, while those for the Democratic Party tend to highlight the perceived weakness and disorganization of the party. The GOP is associated with being "greedy," "rich," "business," "crooks," "corrupt," "money," and "for rich people." The Democrats are seen as "weak," disorganized," and "confused," with a few mentions of "slow" and "struggling" tossed in. Several people also described the party as "too liberal," and a few others mentioned "socialist" and "communists."
[...]