Rasmussen's Week in Review

From Rasmussen Reports…

What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Election Day is little more than two weeks away, and the political landscape is the same as it’s been for months.

The majority of U.S. voters continue to favor repeal of the new national health care law. 

Nearly three-out-of-four voters (73%) believe it is at least somewhat likely that the law will cause some companies to drop health insurance coverage for their employees, including 47% who say it is Very Likely.

Homeowners are more pessimistic than ever than the value of their home will go down over the next year. Just 52% of adults, in fact, now think buying a home is the best investment families can make, down from 73% in February of last year. 

The attorney generals of all 50 states have jointly launched an investigation into the lending practices of several big banks and mortgage companies that led to hundreds of thousands of ongoing home foreclosures. But there’s less support for a moratorium on foreclosures than they was in the past.

Meanwhile, billions in unpopular taxpayer bailouts aside, Americans continue to show a lack of confidence in the stability of the U.S. banking industry.

The Rasmussen Consumer and Investor Indexes have recovered slightly in recent weeks but are still only back to levels found at the beginning of this year.

As for overseas, a plurality of voters nationwide continues to believe the U.S. situation in Afghanistan will get worse in the next six months.

At week’s end, 43% of voters said they at least somewhat approve of President Obama’s job performance, but 56% disapprove in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll. 

All in all, not a pretty picture for the party in power and one that helps explain why Republicans hold an eight-point lead on the Generic Congressional Ballot. That means 47% of Likely Voters would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate, while 39% would go for the Democrat.

To be more specific, at week’s end, the Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 Senate Balance of Power rankings suggest that Democrats will hold 48 seats after Election Day, while the Republicans will have 47. Five states are in the Toss-Up category (California, Illinois, Nevada, Washington and West Virginia ). Four Toss-Ups are seats currently held by Democrats, while West Virginia is a special election to replace Democrat Robert Byrd, who passed away recently.

OHIO - Republican Rob Portman has jumped to a 23-point lead over Democratic Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher.

OHIO - The race between Republican John Kasich and incumbent Democratic Governor Ted Strickland appears to be tightening.

See the full story at…

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/weekly_updates/what_they_told_us_reviewing_last_week_s_key_polls