Lawmakers have room for improvement in gaining voter trust, a survey finds. | POLITICO Staff Poll: Congress rates low on honesty

Americans’ opinion of congressional honesty has improved over the past year, but lawmakers are still more distrusted than even used car salesmen, according to a poll released Monday.

More than half of Americans — 54 percent — have a low or very low opinion of congressional honesty and ethics, Gallup found. That’s improved from 2011, when 64 percent had a low or very low opinion. Ten percent had a high or very high opinion of congressional trustworthiness, up from 7 percent a year ago.


The only similarly distrusted profession is used car salesmen: Only 8 percent trust them, and 49 percent do not.

Americans are also more likely to trust governors and senators than they are to trust rank-and-file members of the House of Representatives. One-fifth of Americans have high or very high opinions of gubernatorial ethics, and 14 percent said the same of senators.

The list of professions Americans trust is short. Nurses, pharmacists, doctors, engineers, police officers, dentists, college teachers and the clergy topped the list, with more than 50 percent rating their ethics as high or very high. Journalists fall somewhere in the middle.

The poll of 1,015 adults was conducted from Nov. 26 to Nov. 29. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

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