Good News For Democrats

As you probably know, the Republican Party has a substantial majority of the United States House of Representatives. This has allowed them to block any efforts by the president and the progressive Democrats to pass job creation measures, tax the rich and corporations fairly, protect the environment, or protect funding for education and social programs to help hurting Americans.

This needs to change, but the only way it will change is for the House of Representatives to once more have a Democratic majority (without the Blue Dogs). But most political pundits have been saying for the last few months that it is almost a sure thing that the Republicans will retain a majority in the House after the next election. They don't think enough seats can change hands to put the Democrats back in control. But they may be wrong.



The people of America are angry. They are mad that nothing has been done to create a substantial amount of new jobs in America. They are mad because the rich and the corporations are allowed to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. And they are mad at the increasingly unequal gap in wealth and income between the richest Americans and the rest of America.

And as much as the politicians may wish otherwise, the people are not stupid. They can see which party -- the Republicans -- are blocking efforts to help ordinary Americans and trying to get even larger tax cuts and government giveaways for the rich and the corporations. The people are not thrilled with the president and Democrats, but they are downright disgusted with Speaker Boehner and his Republican thugs in the House. It's why a recent poll showed the Congress had a dismal 9% approval rating with Americans.

And now it looks like the voters may be ready to boot many of those Republican congressmen out of office. A Public Policy Polling survey of 12 swing House districts shows this clearly. The folks at PPP think there is a good chance that the Democrats can regain control of the House. Here is some of what they said in a memo from the director of PPP, Tom Jensen:

The National numbers point to the possibility for Democrats to reclaim a majority in the House next year, and a series of polls conducted by PPP in 12 individual Congressional districts last week backs up what the national numbers are showing.

The 12 districts we polled are all in states where redistricting has already occurred - Arkansas, California, Illinois, and Wisconsin. And in all 12 we found the same thing - voters would like to replace the Republican incumbent with someone else, and for the most part the new GOP House majority is proving to be extremely unpopular.


Here's what they found:

ARKANSAS 1ST DISTRICT
43% would re-elect Rick Crawford
48% would prefer someone else
38% have a favorable opinion of congressional Republicans
49% have an negative opinion of congressional Republicans

ARKANSAS 2ND DISTRICT
44% would re-elect Tim Griffin
49% would prefer someone else
36% have a favorable opinion of congressional Republicans
53% have a negative opinion of congressional Republicans

CALIFORNIA 7TH DISTRICT
43% would re-elect Dan Lungren
54% would prefer someone else
36% have a favorable opinion of congressional Republicans
53% have a negative opinion of congressional Republicans

CALIFORNIA 10TH DISTRICT
38% would re-elect Jeff Denham
49% would prefer someone else
43% have a favorable opinion of congressional Republicans
41% have a negative opinion of congressional Republicans

CALIFORNIA 26TH DISTRICT
42% would re-elect Elton Gallegly
48% would prefer someone else
40% have a favorable opinion of congressional Republicans
47% have a negative opinion of congressional Republicans

CALIFORNIA 36TH DISTRICT
43% would re-elect Mary Bono Mack
55% would prefer someone else
34% have a favorable opinion of congressional Republicans
54% have a negative opinion of congressional republicans

CALIFORNIA 52ND DISTRICT
42% would re-elect Brian Bilbray
51% would prefer someone else
39% have a favorable opinion of congressional Republicans
53% have a negative opinion of congressional Republicans

ILLINOIS 10TH DISTRICT
42% would re-elect Bob Dold
50% would prefer someone else
35% have a favorable opinion of congressional Republicans
54% have a negative opinion of congressional Republicans

ILLINOIS 11TH DISTRICT
41% would re-elect Judy Biggert
52% would prefer someone else
44% have a favorable opinion of congressional Republicans
50% have a negative opinion of congressional Republicans

ILLINOIS 13TH DISTRICT
33% would re-elect Tim Johnson
53% would prefer someone else
30% have a favorable opinion of congressional Republicans
53% have a negative opinion of congressional Republicans

ILLINOIS 17TH DISTRICT
39% would re-elect Bobby Schilling
49% would prefer someone else
32% have a favorable opinion of congressional Republicans
54% have a negative opinion of congressional Republicans

WISCONSIN 7TH DISTRICT
43% would re-elect Sean Duffy
51% would prefer someone else
39% have a favorable opinion of congressional Republicans
52% have a negative opinion of congressional Republicans

Remember, all of these are supposedly "safe" Republican districts. It looks like the tide may actually be turning.