BOOM!!! Republicans Open Record Nine Point Lead In Generic Congressional Ballot

The March of bad news for the Democratic party continuances. On Sunday Rasmussen  reported the number of people identifying themselves as Democrats was at a seven year low and that drop has happened every since Barack Obama was elected.

Currently, 35.5% of American adults still admit that they are Democrats. It is still 1.5% more than the GOP but last December the number was. That’s down from 36.0 a month ago and from 37.8% in October. Last December the numbers were 41.6% for the Democrats and 32.8% for the GOP an 8.8% difference. Growing faster than the republicans are the "other" category which includes independents. Other grew by 5 percentage points from 25.6 to 30.6%

Yesterday Rasmussen followed up with the fact that 58%  of U.S. voters now say Congress is doing a poor job. That’s the highest negative finding since Rasmussen began asking the question in November 2006.

Forty-three percent (43%) of all voters say most members of Congress are corrupt, the highest level of belief since we began asking this question in June 2008. By comparison, just 32% say most congressmen are not corrupt, but that’s the lowest level of confidence in over 20 months. Twenty-five percent (25%) remain undecided.

Since the Congress is overwhelmingly run by the Democrats, these numbers are certainly in indication of voters perception of the way the party is running the legislature.

Tonight Rasmussen released the latest "generic Congressional ballot" report and once again is bad news for the Democrats.

The new Rasmussen poll shows that 44% would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate while 35% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent, that nine point lead is the biggest GOP advantage in seven years.

While the Republican lead has reached a new high, it should be noted that support for GOP candidates rose just one point over the past week, while support for Democrats dropped four points to its lowest level in years.

The latest generic ballot numbers highlight a remarkable change in the political environment during 2009. When President Obama was inaugurated, the Democrats enjoyed a seven-point advantage on the Generic Ballot. That means the GOP has made a net gain of 16 percentage points over the course of the year. Support for Democrats has declined eight points since Obama's inauguration while Republican support is up nine points.

The Republican gains began in February when Republicans in the House unanimously opposed the $787-billion economic stimulus plan proposed by the president and congressional Democrats. At that time, Republican gains came almost entirely from the GOP base. Currently, just 30% of voters believe the stimulus plan helped the economy while 38% believe it hurt.

The two parties were very close on the Generic Ballot throughout the spring, but Republicans pulled ahead for good in late June. Those GOP gains took place after the health care debate began and unaffiliated voters began to shift away from the Democrats. Only 40% of voters currently favor the health care plan, while 55% are opposed.

....There has been a notable shift this week among women, who now favor Republicans slightly 40% to 38%. Last week, women favored Democrats 45% to 38%. Men prefer Republicans 49% to 32%, showing little change over the past week.

Amongst independents  the GOP leads 48% to 17%.

It seems the Democrats have over reached, but we can't do anything about it until next November.