While those of us who eat, sleep and breathe politics know that the entire General Assembly is up for election this November, it seems the rest of Virginia could really care less:
More than 70 percent of voters surveyed [in the Christopher Newport University/Richmond Times-Dispatch poll of registered voters] said they are paying little (60.3 percent) to no (10.1 percent) attention to the looming November elections in which every seat in the legislature will be decided.
Only 13.5 percent of respondents said they care “quite a lot,” and 14.1 percent said they only care “some.”
So as is often the case in an off-off-year election, a handful of people are engaged. That cadre will decide which party controls the state Senate and, by extension, the commonwealth’s political course over the next few years.
No matter. Those who haven’t paid the slightest bit of attention, or couldn’t find it in themselves to vote, will still retain their inalienable right to complain.
The headline number about the disengaged aside, there are some nuggets within the poll that are quite surprising…or dispiriting, depending on your point of view. Consider the DPVA’s fundraising poster boy, and presidential frenemy, Eric Cantor:
Asked whether they had a favorable or unfavorable view of U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-7th, almost half (45.8 percent) of those polled have no opinion or don’t know him. Of those who do, 28.5 percent see him favorably to 25.8 percent who do not.
Or think of Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who has held statewide office since 2006 and intends to run for the governorship in 2013:
Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a Republican running for governor in 2013, is well-liked by those who know him with a 23.4 percent favorable rating compared with an 8.4 percent unfavorable mark, but 69.1 percent of those polled have no opinion.
Look for that latter number to change significantly as the gubernatorial sweepstakes get underway.
There are other numbers, too: for Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, 44 percent approve of him, 26 percent disapprove and 28 percent don’t know. Governor Bob McDonnell scores quite well (69 percent approval) and Sen. Mark Warner clocks in with a 65 percent approval.
But then we get to the Senate race. The poll is oddly limited in that it only offers respondents the choice of George Allen, Tim Kaine and Jamie Radtke. But even in this small universe, Mrs. Radtke is virtually unknown:
…Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jamie Radtke, a Chesterfield County resident and former chairwoman of the Virginia Tea Party Patriots Federation, is viewed favorably (8.9 percent to 7 percent), but 84 percent of those surveyed don’t know her.
So much for those tea party credentials. Not unexpectedly, Kaine and Allen are widely known and in a tight race.
There’s a lot more to this poll — including bits about how Virginia might really be for Romney after all and that even amongst the unengaged and apathetic, the overall preference is for Republicans to control both chambers of the General Assembly.
