Poll: Voters want to throw out bums in Congress

Catalina Camia | USA TODAY

Voters are fed up with Congress and want to throw the bums out.

That's one takeaway from a Pew Research Center poll released Tuesday that shows a record 74% of registered voters would like to see most members of Congress defeated in 2014.

At this same point in the 2010 and 2006 midterm elections — which resulted in the House flipping party control — only about half wanted to see most lawmakers booted from office.

Voters always have a soft spot for their own member of Congress, as poll after poll shows. That's still true today: 48% of voters in the Pew poll say they want to see their representative re-elected while 38% want a replacement.

With the shutdown now in its 15th day — and a solution to ending it still elusive — the anti-incumbent mood should be no surprise. Several polls over the last two weeks have shown Americans blaming both parties in Congress and President Obama, but they're particularly upset by the actions of Republicans.

Still, there's more than a year to go before the next election and that's like a lifetime.

Incumbency is a powerful thing in politics: It helps with fundraising and winning over constituents, since someone already in Congress has the staff to do things like chase a lost Social Security check. Plus, in the House, political boundaries are typically drawn in such a way to protect incumbents.

Last year, 90% of House members and 91% of senators won re-election, according to a Bloomberg Government analysis.

And while there's anger directed at Republicans right now over the shutdown, the Pew poll shows 42% say the GOP can better manage the government vs. 39% who pick the Democrats.

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