How Jeff Flake Became the Most Unpopular Senator in America
ALEXANDER ABAD-SANTOS
It wasn't easy dethroning Mitch McConnell as America's least favorite Senator, but Jeff Flake has done that in just three short months, a new poll out Monday reveals — and his fall from rising-star grace is not quite the head-scratcher you might think. In November, Flake won his Arizona Senate seat by almost 5 percentage points, but it was a lot closer than "the double-digit lead he held earlier in the year," ABC News reported at the time. Flake, a popular six-time Congressman who won previous elections with as much as 74 percent of the vote, strode into the seat of former Minority Whip Jon Kyl as a face of turnaround for the state and the Republican party. But, oh, how the mighty can fall in a time of guns, immigration, and constant polling.
The Numbers
Public Policy Polling, in their latest survey on the fallout of the recent vote on gun legislation, explains just how much people don't like Mr. Flake:
Just 32% of voters approve of him to 51% who disapprove and that -19 net approval rating makes him the most unpopular sitting Senator we've polled on, taking that label from Mitch McConnell.
Since December, it was hard to imagine anyone unseating McConnell because, according to PPP and despite the Kentucky Senator's internal numbers, the Senate Minority Leader was always' the old curmudgeon who represented the laughable state of America's hatred toward Congress. But whether it's because McConnell played the Nixonian sympathy card or not, that's changed. Polls upon polls confirm that everyone still hates Congress, and PPP is still very accurate despite it's occasional trolling and admitted lefty bias. So what happened to the junior Senator from Arizona? According to PPP's polling, conducted April 25-26 in the aftermath of the gun vote that killed legislation on background checks, it's blowback — Democrats and independent voters have really flaked on Flake:
Considering how partisan our government has become, it's not surprising that Democrats in a relatively red state would have strong feelings against a Republican Senator. But, there's a big reason why independents don't like the guy.
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http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/04/jeff-flake-most-unpopular-senator-america/64683/
