In New Hampshire, Rasmussen Reports shows that Paul Hodes is trailing two potential Republican candidates by ten points. Rasmussen explains:
“Two Republican hopefuls now post 10-point leads over likely Democratic nominee Paul Hodes in New Hampshire’s U.S. Senate race.
A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state again finds former Attorney General Kelly Ayotte leading Hodes, who has no major challengers for his party’s Senate nomination. This time, she posts a 47% to 37% lead over Hodes. Four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate, and 12% are undecided.
But now businessman Bill Binnie, a political unknown who has introduced himself to the state largely through television advertising, leads Hodes 46% to 36%. Four percent (4%) favor another candidate. Fourteen percent (14%) are undecided.
Ayotte, the state’s attorney general from 2004 until her resignation last July, has posted similar leads over Hodes since last September. But Binnie’s rapid climb since the first of the year now suggests that the GOP has a real contest on its hands between now and the September 14 primary.
Last month, Ayotte led Hodes 46% to 39%, while Binnie earned 42% to the Democrat’s 41%. Democrat by six. A third GOP hopeful, Ovide Lamontagne, an attorney who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1996, continues to trail Hodes. The Democrat leads Lamontagne 42% to 38%, with 15% undecided. Five percent (5%) favor some other candidate. These numbers have changes little since the start of the year.
Hodes is viewed very favorably by 20% of the state’s voters and very unfavorably by 28%.
For Ayotte, very favorables are 22% and very unfavorables seven percent (7%).
Thirteen percent (13%) have a very favorable opinion of Binnie, while eight percent (8%) view him very unfavorably.
Lamontagne is seen very favorably by seven percent (7%) and very unfavorably by 11%.
At this point in a campaign, Rasmussen Reports considers the number of people with a strong opinion more significant than the total favorable/unfavorable numbers.
Perhaps significantly for Hodes, one of the state’s two U.S. House members, just 34% of New Hampshire voters think their local congressional representative deserves to be reelected. Thirty-eight percent (38%) disagree.
Sixty-one percent (61%) believe it would be better for the country if most congressional incumbents were defeated this November. Only 19% say it would be better if most were reelected.
While Hodes has voted in favor of the national health care plan now working its way through Congress, just 44% of New Hampshire voters favor that plan. Fifty-three percent (53%) are opposed to it. Those findings include 24% who Strongly Favor it and 45% who Strongly Oppose it.
Not surprisingly, Hodes earns overwhelming support from those voters who strongly approve of the plan, while all three of the Republicans are the overwhelming favorites of those who strongly oppose it.
Voters not affiliated with either of the major parties prefer Ayotte and Binnie over Hodes by better than two-to-one. They also favor Lamontagne in that match-up but by a narrower margin.
Fifty-eight percent (58%) of voters in the state say a better strategy for reforming health care is to pass smaller bills that address individual problems rather than a comprehensive one such as Congress is now planning. Thirty-one percent (31%) think a comprehensive bill is better.
Thirty-seven percent (37%) say President Obama is doing a good job on the health care reform issue. Forty-nine percent (49%) rate his performance in this area as poor.
Forty-six percent (46%) fear the government more than private insurance companies when it comes to health care decisions, but 45% fear the insurers more.
Forty-five percent (45%) have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party movement. Thirty-nine percent (39%) view that movement unfavorably. Just 16% of New Hampshire voters consider themselves a part of the Tea Party movement.
Forty-four percent (44%) expect the economy to be stronger a year from now, but 35% say it will be weaker. Just 27% think it is still possible for anyone who really wants to work to find a job in America. Fifty-four percent (54%) say that’s no longer true.
Obama carried New Hampshire in November 2008 with 54% of the vote. Forty-eight percent (48%) of the state’s voters now approve of his performance as president, with 29% who Strongly Approve. Fifty-two percent (52%) disapprove of the job the president is doing, including 41% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives Obama a slightly higher job approval rating in the state than he earns nationally in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.
