Lindsey Graham's standing

Lindsey Graham has more crossover appeal than almost any other US Senator in the country. He's also one of the least popular Senators within his own party. Such is the product of being a rare politician with any bipartisan instincts in these highly polarized times.

Overall 43% of South Carolina voters approve of the job Graham is doing with 35% disapproving. With Republicans his approval is 46% to 34% disapproving. Out of 28 Senators PPP has measured approval ratings for in the last six months that makes Graham one of just three with the support of less than 50% of his party's voters. The others are Maine's Olympia Snowe, whose approval with Republicans dropped to 40% after her committee vote in favor of a Democratic health care bill, and Delaware's Ted Kaufman who is mostly unknown to the state's voters after being appointed to replace Joe Biden in the Senate.

The unhappiness of some Republicans voters with him is no big secret- 33% of primary voters chose a more conservative alternative to him last year and 41% of the party's respondents on this poll said they think Graham is too liberal.

The willingness to occasionally go against the party line has won Graham an unusual amount of support from Democrats though. 38% approve of the job he's doing with 36% disapproving. That makes him third only to Snowe and Maine's other Senator, Susan Collins, for crossover approval among the folks we've polled on in the last half year.

As long as he can survive Republican primaries Graham's probably got this seat for as long as he wants it. When you're relatively popular with Democrats in a state that's strongly Republican leaning to begin with that's a good recipe for reelection in perpetuity.

Here's how Graham stacks up in terms of crossover approval with other Senators we've polled on since the beginning of June:

Senator	Approval w/other party
Olympia Snowe (R-ME)	60%
Susan Collins (R-ME)	40%
Lindsey Graham (R-SC)	38%
John McCain (R-AZ)	32%
Tom Carper (D-DE)	28%
David Vitter (R-LA)	28%
George Voinovich (R-OH)	27%
Mark Pryor (D-AR)	26%
Kit Bond (R-MO)	26%
Jeff Sessions (R-AL)	25%
Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)	24%
Mark Warner (D-VA)	22%
Richard Shelby (R-AL)	22%
Richard Burr (R-NC)	22%
Jim DeMint (R-SC)	22%
Herb Kohl (D-WI)	19%
Mary Landrieu (D-LA)	18%
Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)	15%
Jon Kyl (R-AZ)	15%
Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)	14%
Claire McCaskill (D-MO)	12%
Jim Webb (D-VA)	12%
Mark Udall (D-CO)	11%
Russ Feingold (D-WI)	10%
Ted Kaufman (D-DE)	10%
Michael Bennet (D-CO)	9%
Robert Menendez (D-NJ)	8%
Sherrod Brown (D-OH)	8%