Democratic outfits like MoveOn.org and other antiwar groups have been pounding Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell all year because of his support for President Bush's Iraq policy and his skill in thwarting Democratic efforts to end the war and pass liberal legislation. TV ads zinging McConnell have been aired in his home state of Kentucky by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Service Employees International Union, Americans United for Change, Vote Vets, and Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, a group that includes MoveOn.org.
Now the results are in: The television blitz has failed miserably. McConnell's approval in Kentucky was 54 percent when the Louisville Courier-Journal conducted its Bluegrass Poll in February. And when the findings of a new Bluegrass Poll were released several weeks ago, his approval among Kentuckians was ... 54 percent. No change, except for a slight increase in his disapproval from 23 percent in February to 28 percent now. McConnell is up for reelection in 2008, but no Democratic opponent has yet come forward to run against him. The new poll numbers won't encourage one to jump in, nor will the fact that McConnell has raised more than $9 million.
That's not all. There's an interesting contrast between how well McConnell is doing at home and how poorly his Democratic counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, is faring in Nevada. Reid hasn't faced anything like the barrage of attacks ads that have targeted McConnell. No Republican or conservative group has run TV spots against him. Of course, Reid won't be on the ballot again until 2010 (assuming he seeks a new term). But he'd better start worrying. His favorable rating is a meager 32 percent in a Mason-Dixon poll conducted this month for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. This is down from 46 percent in May.
What's all the more embarrassing for Reid is that his favorability rating trails President Bush (34 percent), Rush Limbaugh (34), Nevada Republican senator John Ensign (51), Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman (42), and former President Bill Clinton (51). Reid's only consolation is that he's a tad more popular than Nevada's Republican governor, Jim Gibbons (30). Faring worse than Limbaugh was especially telling, says pollster Brad Coker. "That's how polarizing Harry Reid has become," Coker told the Review-Journal. "But Rush is trying to be polarizing. Reid just does it anyway."
