Both declined in poll ratings over the past 10 months:
The survey company reported 58 percent of Delaware voters approve of Sen. Tom Carper and 52 percent approve of Sen. Chris Coons. Both are Democrats.
Those numbers are down from September of last year, when Sen. Carper ranked as the fourth-most popular senator, with 66 percent of registered voters in the First State expressing support in a Morning Consult poll. Sen. Coons received a 55-percent approval rating at the time.
You can see the Morning Consult poll here.
Neither are underwater, certainly, but Carper was the 4th most liked Senator in the last poll in September. What would cause that kind of fall off? I’m not certain, but I am going to use this post to indulge my own prejudices here.
First, I do wonder how much the amazing attention brought to the votes made by both on the amendment that would call for looking at pharmaceutical prices , especially the event at St. Francis where Jeff Day really challenged Senator Carper on the weak rationale for his reasons for not voting for that amendment.
Second, I don’t get much of a sense from either of these gentlemen that they understand how the Dem mindset has shifted since November. So many Democrats are concerned about their government (at all levels), concerned that their government is abandoning them, concerned about a government that clearly isn’t all that interested in their concerns. Are these two Senators being responsive to any of those concerns? I rarely see it. Townhalls are few and far between. The FB ones seem over-controlled and tone deaf. I mean, reassuring explanations are great, but that often is meant to paper over the fact that there are few solutions at hand. The press releases and FB pages of these Senators rarely recognize the real crisis that so many of us feel as though we are living through. It’s as though they are pretty much waiting for this era to be over so they can get back to their strategy of getting behind social change, but ignoring necessary economic change.
You can see it in their FB pages as well — which often have the tone of dutiful letters from camp to parents. This is what I did, this is who I met and yes I did brush my teeth. Compare it to Elizabeth Warren’s page, Cory Booker’s page, Al Franken’s page, even Tim Kaine’s page — there is engagement on the issues that are at the top of the list of concerns and that engagement includes various calls to action for supporters.
Third, does anyone know what they are doing in DC now? I mean, Carper is working on a Reinsurance plan to help Obamacare, but??? The occasional conversations I have with local friends pretty much come down to this question. Which is going to be a factor going forward, right? Do you know anyone who isn’t asking what their politicians have done for them lately?
As I said, this is entirely my own biases talking here — biases for fighting Democrats and Democrats that are looking to figure out how to directly support the life I need to live here in Delaware. But I am not the only one thinking this way, either. My biases or no, there’s a reason for this drop — what do you think?
I think the vote against importing drugs from Canada had a big negative impact for all the Dems that voted against it, the “safety” rational was at best strained and showed that the Dems are also owned by big pharma. As noted the Dem base is energized and wants answers, answers that are not forthcoming from the dynamic duo. And the analogy of letters home from camp are apt as well, Coons puts them out everyday, the just scream “See, I’m doing something!”.
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We can just lump them in with the Governor and state legislators (with a few exceptions none of which is in the leadership) that do not get the Democrats are concerned about economic issues among others and are being ignored. All the Dems are getting substantially more phone calls, emails and mail compared with prior years. Carper and Coons have both commented on it. Assuming they are paying some attention to their constitutents think what the polls would be if people had not been contacting them.
They aren’t talking about issues that cause the majority of their voters anxiety, that seems certain.
Thank you for the shout out. I would love to see both Carper and Coons primaried. Carper is up for re-election in 2018 and still crickets from the Dems. I looked up info on running myself and it’s $10k just to file as a dem for senate… but that isn’t prohibitive or anything.