AZ Policy Wonk

The Democratic National Committee has decided it’s time to call out Sen. Jon Kyl for his statements on the health care legislation.

The “Call ‘Em Out” campaign now has three targets - all of them high-profile Republicans. The first two were U.S. Rep. John Boehner and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Boehner is the House minority leader, and Pawlenty is rumored to be a future presidential candidate. Kyl is the Senate minority whip.

Democrats have called out Kyl for four specific statements he’s made regarding how the health care proposal would impact Americans.

No. 1: Democrats dispute the idea that government would not be put in control of health care.

No. 2: They dispute the statement that health insurance reform would cut Medicare and lead to rationing.

No 3.: They say it’s false that health insurance reform would be hugely costly.

No. 4: And they take issue with the idea that comparative effectiveness research would lead to rationing and denial of care.

Each of the arguments and background is long and tedious, so I’m not going to go into it all here. But you can read the full text of the Democrat charges at http://www.democrats.org/page/content/callemoutkyl. There’s also a YouTube video that can be accessed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBdRs7VRu8c.

Kyl’s spokesman Andrew Wilder noted in an e-mail this morning that he hesitates to dignify the attacks with a response. But he did anyway. He stated that “Slick graphics don’t hide the fact that the Democratic National Committee has to misrepresent the facts of their government-run health care takeover to the American people in order to get it passed.” He also pointed out that “support for ObamaCare has sunk to a new all-time low of only 41 percent in favor.” He cited a recent poll by Rasmussen, which can be found at http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/september_2009/health_care_reform

To see what Kyl says about health care and what he wants to do on the issue, check out the following recent columns the senator has authored:

http://kyl.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=318341

http://kyl.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=317730 

http://kyl.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=316972 

http://kyl.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=315950

It appears Sen. John McCain is viewed by Arizona voters only slightly more favorably than President Obama, at least when it comes to the percentage of people who think the two federal officials are doing an “excellent” or “good” job.

A new Rocky Mountain Poll by the Behavior Research Center shows McCain with a 48 percent approval rating, while Obama’s is at 47 percent. The poll was conducted among 800 Arizonans (629 were registered voters) from Sept. 9-18. The results were released Sept. 28. The poll has a margin of error of 3.5 percent.

Though both officials had a favorable rating overall - the percentage of those who viewed Obama’s job performance as “poor” or “very poor” was much higher than McCain’s. Thirty-two percent said Obama was doing a bad job, while 21 percent said they disapprove of McCain’s job performance.

The Behavior Research Center somehow took this to mean that the results reflect “the fierce attacks from the GOP toward nearly all aspects of (Obama’s) policies,” according to an analysis released along with the poll.

Those who wrote the analysis noted a deep partisan divide, and provided numbers to back that up. But it’s not clear how they made the leap that in Obama’s case it meant that people view him disfavorably due to Republican attacks.

“It also appears that these attacks have been most successful among voters over 55 years of age, middle income voters and Caucasians,” according to the analysis. “On the other hand, groups in which Mr. Obama remains favorably evaluated by a majority include ethnic minorities (especially Hispanics) both lower and upper income voters and voters under the age of 55.”

Those who disapproved of Obama’s performance were mostly Republicans (58 percent said he was doing a poor or very poor job). Many independents also viewed him unfavorably (31 percent said he was doing a poor or very poor job). Among Democrats, only 9 percent said he was doing poorly.

The results weren’t as partisan for McCain, although he did, of course, fare better among Republicans. Thirty-eight percent of Democrats and 28 percent of independents said he was doing a bad job. Thirteen percent of Republicans disapproved of his performance.

The pollsters also surveyed the job performance of Sen. Jon Kyl, whose results were similar to McCain’s. Kyl registered a 44 percent approval rating, while tallying 24 percent in the poor or very poor categories. A further breakdown of his results are below.

The wild card, once again, is the designation “fair” that is used in Rocky Mountain Polls. It’s sort of a murky designation that I interpret as those who are undecided about a politician’s performance; they could be swayed either way, or they are not paying close attention. McCain registered a 31 percent in the fair category, Kyl was at 32 percent, and Obama had a 21 percent.

It’s interesting that 94 percent of those polled had opinions on McCain and Obama, while only 75 percent responded for Kyl. It appears the Senate minority whip still doesn’t carry the same name recognition of his Senate counterpart in their home state. Perhaps a run for president (successful or not) would change that.

Poll Question: “Would you say that (public official’s name) is doing an excellent, good, fair, poor or very poor job in office?” 

                         Excellent/Good     Fair     Poor/Very Poor

President Barack Obama   
All voters                    47%                 21%             32%
Democrats                  75%                 16%              9%
independents              46%                 23%             31%
Republicans                17%                 25%             58%

U.S. Sen. John McCain
All Voters                    48%                31%             21%
Democrats                  37%                32%             31%
independents              38%                34%             28%
Republicans                56%                31%             13%