U.S. Senator Approval Trends

Survey USA has been conducting polls on the approval ratings of all 100 U.S. Senators. To get some sense of how things have changed over the last year, I compared the most recent net approval ratings (approval minus disapproval) to those from last May. Overall, the net approval rating for U.S. Senators fell 3 points. This dip was across party lines, as Democratic Senators fell 2 points and Republican Senators fell 3 points. The table below looks just at Senators running for reelection this fall. Among this set, however, there was a clear partisan difference. The average net approval for the Democrats remained unchanged, but for the Republicans it fell 7 points.

Democrats
state	senator	net approval '06	net approval '05	change
CT	Lieberman, Joseph	19%	31%	-12%
MI	Stabenow, Debbie	2%	14%	-12%
MA	Kennedy, Edward	16%	26%	-10%
FL	Nelson, Bill	15%	24%	-9%
HI	Akaka, Daniel	31%	36%	-5%
WA	Cantwell, Maria	7%	10%	-3%
DE	Carper, Thomas	36%	39%	-3%
NY	Clinton, Hillary	30%	32%	-2%
NM	Bingaman, Jeff	30%	27%	3%
CA	Feinstein, Dianne	16%	13%	3%
ND	Conrad, Kent	40%	36%	4%
WV	Byrd, Robert	33%	20%	13%
WI	Kohl, Herb	34%	19%	15%
NE	Nelson, Ben	54%	36%	18%
	Average	26%	26%	0%

Republicans
state	senator	net approval '06	net approval '05	change
MT	Burns, Conrad	-13%	14%	-27%
PA	Santorum, Rick	-14%	6%	-20%
MO	Talent, Jim	5%	18%	-13%
IN	Lugar, Richard	24%	35%	-11%
AZ	Kyl, Jon	3%	13%	-10%
TX	Hutchison, Kay	26%	34%	-8%
WY	Thomas, Craig	27%	34%	-7%
MS	Lott, Trent	33%	35%	-2%
ME	Snowe, Olympia	48%	50%	-2%
VA	Allen, George	11%	13%	-2%
OH	DeWine, Mike	7%	8%	-1%
NV	Ensign, John	13%	13%	0%
UT	Hatch, Orrin	27%	27%	0%
RI	Chafee, Lincoln	13%	8%	5%
	Average	15%	22%	-7%