Q-Poll: Simmons Ties Dodd
by Christine Stuart | March 10, 2009 6:58 AM
Posted to General News
If the election were held today, former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons would beat U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd for his seat, 43 to 42 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday.
In a 2010 Dodd-Simmons match up, Democrats back Dodd 74 to 15 percent, while Simmons leads 80 to 10 percent amongst Republicans and 49 to 32 percent among independent voters.
“These numbers have to worry Sen. Christopher Dodd. Former Congressman Simmons is not well known outside his district yet he is running neck and neck with Dodd at this point,” Poll Director Doug Schwartz said in a press release.
“Simmons easily wins his former district. The good news for Dodd is that this is the first poll in a long time where Dodd’s job approval rating hasn’t dropped. It appears that Dodd’s slide may have ended,” Schwartz said.
Dodd, whose approval ratings were in the negative range on Feb. 10, have rebounded slightly. Connecticut voters approve 49 to 44 percent of the job Dodd is doing compared to the 41 to 48 percent approval rating he received on Feb. 10.
Dodd leads state Sen. Sam Caligiuri 47 to 34 percent and tops CNBC-TV host Larry Kudlow 46 to 34 percent, the poll also found.
Connecticut’s Gov. M. Jodi Rell maintains her 75 percent approval rating and the Democratic approval of the Republican governor at 69 to 23 percent is higher than the overall approval rating for any governor in any state polled by Quinnipiac this year. Voters also approve 61 to 28 percent of the way Rell is handling the state budget.
Voters also say 54 to 44 percent that liquor stores should be allowed to sell liquor on Sundays and say 58 to 37 percent that decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana is a good idea.
And Connecticut voters believe 63 to 32 percent that the state does not need a tax increase to balance the budget. Democrats say no new taxes 51 to 43 percent, while Republicans say no new taxes 79 to 19 percent and independent voters say 66 to 28 percent.
Voters do oppose tolls on the highway 61 to 35 percent.
The poll surveyed 1,238 Connecticut voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percent.
Comments (3)
Posted by: Connecticut Man1 | March 10, 2009 9:21 AM
None of the stuff about lobbyists and other typical junk would matter if he would support issues that independents might like. Instead we hear stuff like "I hear a lot about single payer but that is not going to happen." (paraphrased)
He hears us but he ain't listening. How quaint. For a brief moment he showed some leadership in nationalization of the banks... And then he backtracked.
You can throw out all of the partisan Democratic and Republican numbers.
He needs to win the people that don't care about party politics - the fastest growing voting block in the state. We care about issues and that is all we watch.
In spite of all of that, I am surprised that Simmons can get numbers like that. It is not that long ago that he was a big part of running this country into the ground with GOP endless wars and fiscal insanity.
Posted by: Ken Haynam | March 10, 2009 12:01 PM
The question on "no new taxes" can basically be discarded because voters always say no to new taxes. AND they also say no to cuts in essential services such as education.
People will never understand that they can not say no to both service cuts and increased taxes AND have a annual balanced budget.
Posted by: Connecticut Man1 | March 12, 2009 10:52 AM
"People will never understand that they can not say no to both service cuts and increased taxes AND have a annual balanced budget."
Yep.
The entire economy is being carried by the government right now as wall street and the banks are subsidized with their socialized losses - and the other companies benefiting from it scream bloody murder if government proposes a very moderate tax increase on the privatized profits.
The conservative side talks a lot about government pork... But just try and cut one of their pet projects and they screech like any other group about it.
Meanwhile the liberal side wants better schools, but even they say they don't want to pay more property or state taxes for it.
It is like they all think the government can just manufacture money out of thin air without any consequences, or they think that there will be magic faerie people to do all the essential services work for free if they wish hard enough.
They may as well all, both sides, cover their ears and eyes screaming "lalalalalala" while others do the budgets. Because people like that, on either side, are not helping at all.