Corruption Issue Comes to Fore (Jim VandeHei, WaPo)
Three months from the election, the political scandals in Washington are not resonating broadly as a major issue in a campaign dominated by Iraq and high gasoline prices. A series of public polls show corruption ranks near the bottom when voters are asked about the most important issues in this campaign. In a Washington Post-ABC News poll taken in May, 2 percent of voters listed ethics and corruption as their top concern.
That key excerpt really doesn’t support the titillating headline.
The Democratic party hoped to nationalize the election with a “culture of corruption” meme, but that meme has utterly failed to take hold as corruption scandals have hit members of both parties.
Now, VandeHei is absolutely correct that individual pols may well suffer repercussions from bad behavior (a sensible, but hardly profound, conclusion). But if the Dems are really hoping to nationalize a Congressional election based on the Republican “culture of corruption,” they’re going to need to get that salience measure well above 2%, one would think. I’m still bearish on their chances of doing so.
1 comments On The 2% Fore
That the Abramoff tentacles were able to bring down one-time golden boy Ralph Reed in a state where he was considered a shoo-in is an early sign that the issue may still have legs. Of course, he was personally involved up to his eyeballs with Abramoff, and that lends credence to the personal-involvement-only argument. But it’s a party in power, bigger net to throw argument as well.
It’s still early though, and I think the issue will still have some resonance with voters, especially as campaigns gear up and get going full speed in the fall, and candidates start emphasizing it. Certainly nowhere near the top of anybody’s list, but throw the insiders out has always been a good campaign slogan.
Again, it’s still early, and I could be completely full of it. If so, I like my crow with a nice orange sauce. 😉
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