Survey USA conducted a nationwide, state-by-state survey on the popularity of their own senators. as well as the reputations of all 100 members of the senate.
The top 10:
The bottom 10:
That Obama is the most popular shouldn’t be all that surprising: he has no voting record and is known almost entirely because of the Democratic National Convention speech, which was widely praised. It’s perhaps more surprising that John McCain and Joe Lieberman didn’t make the top 10, but they’re both passionately disliked by a sizable number within their own party.
Hillary Clinton weighs in at #16, which is much higher than I’d have guessed. At first glance, I was surprised by the bottom 10, many of whom are quite innocuous or virtual unknowns. Upon closer examination, though, the ranking is based entirely on positive approval. Most of those at the bottom have scores that add up to far less than 100% — indicating that there was a large “no clue who they are/no opinion on their reputation” segment for them.
I’m not sure what to make of the fact that 8/10 “most popular” senators are Democrats and 8/10 “least popular” are Republicans. That certainly does not reflect the preferences expressed at the election polls.
Update: I misunderstood the nature of the survey. This is merely the in-state views of the senators:
600 adults were interviewed in each of the 50 states. Adults were given the chance to rate only the two Senators from their state.
Compiling these into a national ranking is rather dubious, frankly.
Update (1419): Kevin Drum charts only those Senators whose terms expire this year. There are 17 Democrats, 1 Democrat-voting “Independent,” and 15 Republicans up. So far, we know that Jeffords (I/D), Sarbanes (D), Frist (R), and Dayton (D) are not seeking re-election.
