End of Dodd???

I sure as hell hope so!

Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee?
( He can't even find his own mortgage papers!)

July 23, 2009
Categories: Connecticut

By Josh Kraushaar 07:32 AM

Dodd continues to struggle

Embattled Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) has begun a media campaign to rehabilitate his reputation, but his poll numbers haven't improved much at all over the last two months.

A newly-released Quinnipiac poll shows Dodd still trailing Republican Rob Simmons by nine points, 48 to 39 percent – a worse margin than his six-point deficit in the firm's last poll on May 28.

A 52 percent majority of voters still disapprove of Dodd's job performance, while only 42 percent of voters approve of him. That's only a slight improvement over the May numbers, when he held a 38/53 approval-disapproval rating. A 55 percent majority of voters still believe that Dodd is "not honest and trustworthy."

And a 49 percent plurality said that he does not share their views on issues important to them. – a surprisingly high total in a solidly-Democratic state like Connecticut.

"Dodd's most glaring weakness continues to be that a majority of voters say he is not honest and trustworthy. This is not something that will be easy for Dodd to reverse," said Quinnipiac pollster Douglas Schwartz. "Another problem for Dodd is that the bad economy has put voters in a grumpy mood. Consequently, voters have little patience for politician's missteps."

The one silver lining for Dodd is that he's improved his numbers among registered Democrats, and now holds a 72 percent job approval rating in his own party. But among independents, a whopping 60 percent disapprove of his job performance and only 33 percent approve.

The poll also found that President Obama would have little impact on Dodd's re-election – with 71 percent of voters saying an Obama campaign appearance wouldn't make a difference in their opinion.

For his part, Simmons is still largely an unknown quantity -- 48 percent of voters said they're unfamiliar with him. He holds a high net approval rating, with 39 percent viewing him favorably and just 12 percent unfavorably.

Among Republicans his fav/unfav is 57/2, suggesting his moderate profile won't be a problem with the GOP base. Simmons is facing a competitive primary against former Ambassador Tom Foley and state senator Sam Caligiuri, both of whom are near-total unknowns to the Connecticut electorate.

End of Dodd???