Poll shows voters want candidates who compromise

A new poll shows that a healthy plurality of American voters favor members of Congress who are more willing to compromise in a bipartisan fashion.

When asked in the National Journal poll whether they would be more or less likely to vote for a congressional candidate who “would make compromises with people he or she disagrees with,” 43 percent of respondents said they would be more likely, while only 20 percent said they would be less likely. Some 34 percent said that it would make no difference.

National Journal reports that the new numbers in the United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll contrast with a May 2010 survey in which only 30 percent said that ability to compromise would make a difference in how they decided to vote. That’s a 13 percentage-point increase over the last two years.

But the impulse to embrace compromise doesn’t necessarily have much of an impact on the presidential race. When asked about the importance of a president who can compromise with members of the opposite party in Congress, voters gave higher marks to Obama. Forty-three percent said he would do a better job reaching agreement with the other party, versus 33 percent for Romney. But those responses were heavily polarized along partisan and racial lines. 

NJ’s Matthew Cooper writes:

“The results of the survey don’t bode particularly well for incumbents. Only 14 percent of respondents said that they would be more likely to vote for an ‘incumbent running for reelection.’ That’s the same level of anti-incumbent sentiment as two years ago, when voters ended Democratic control of the House.

“… When 80 percent of those polled say that the two parties have ‘been bickering and opposing one another more than usual,’ that’s a difficult environment for either party to run in, especially when 52 percent say that ‘there have been good ideas’ but fights between the parties have ‘blocked needed government action.’”

You can read more here.