Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Anonymous Senate Delegations

We've done approval polling on both members of the Senate delegation in 14 states so far this year, and North Carolina has the least well known group representing it in Washington of those places:

State

Average ‘No Opinion’ about Senators

North Carolina

33

Delaware

29

Colorado

27

New Jersey

25

Ohio

23

Illinois

20

Louisiana

17

Alabama

17

Arkansas

16

Kentucky

14

Oklahoma

13

Wisconsin

13

Virginia

12

West Virginia

10


There are two main reasons for the comparative anonymity of the state's Senators:

1) Other than Jesse Helms, we just don't keep Senators around in North Carolina. He's the only one to be reelected since 1968. So voters just don't have time to become all that familiar with the folks they elect and then defeat six years later. The other two states at the top of this list- Colorado and Delaware- each have a Senator who was appointed rather than popularly elected. And the state with the most well known delegation- West Virginia- has two Senators with a total tenure of more than 75 years. There's not much doubt that longevity matters.

2) The other reason is that whether we think of ourselves as such or not, we are a big state! And Senators in big states tend to have a harder time getting the voters familiar with them because there is so much more ground to cover. It's no coincidence that beyond the two states with appointed Senators the next three states with the least well known delegations are New Jersey, Ohio, and Illinois, all among the 11 most populous states.

Unless Richard Burr and Kay Hagan can break the state's recent trend, get reelected, and stay around a while North Carolina will continue to have one of the most anonymous- and ultimately least powerful- delegations in the US Senate. We sure aren't building much seniority.

3 comments:

Adam Hearts Dems said...

How do you explain Virginia then? Only 12% don't know Mark Warner and Jim Webb, and both are first termers, and even though Warner was Governor, he hasn't been in the spotlight that much. And Virginia is certainly a big state, in the top 15 in population. Better informed voters in VA? What's your explanation, Tom?

Tom Jensen said...

Yes- I don't have any specific data to point to but I think Virginia has possibly the most informed electorate in the country, just based on my observations polling there so much over the last year and a half.

The state's media also, imo, does a better job of covering politics than in most places. We get much more tv and newspaper coverage there than in NC, even though we are based in NC. More coverage certainly leads to higher awareness.

dtalley said...

Illinois also has a recently appointed Senator, Roland Burris replacing Barack Obama.

 
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