Murray should win

Senator Patty Murray should win re-election to her seat.  That’s the opinion of Scott Rasmussen, founder and president of Rasmussen Reports, who addressed the assemblage attending the annual meeting of the Washington Research Council, last night in Seattle.

Rasmussen said the odds are 65 percent that Murray will be re-elected, but a popularity rating of 48 percent, is fairly low for an incument and there’s still time for her to stumble.

Because this is such a Democratic leaning state, the US Senate race can be a signal of  problems.  “If Murray is still below 50 percent come October, this will signal a bad year for Democrats,” Rasmussen said.

Voters tend to see Senate and Congressional candidates in terms of national issues, Rasmussen said.   “People vote for senators as part of a team.  If Obama can motivate his base, the Democrats will prevail.”

The national pollster said that Americans were upset with everyone in charge and are rejecting both parties.  “People are united in their belief that both political parties are broken,” he said.  “Only 21 percent of Americans believe that our government has the consent of the governed.”

Rasmussen said that America is always changed by single events, that are the result of built up frustrations.  “The biggest single event that changed the country this time  is TARP,” he said.  “Washington DC sees this as saving the world’s economic system.  The American people see it as a bailout and that politicians didn’t care about the American people.”

First they bailed out the banks and financial institutions, he said.  Then they bailed out the car companies, then they bailed out the insurance industry, then they bought a car company.

“All of this was seen by the American people as changing the rules of the game,” Rasmussen said.  “The bailouts show that if you’re big enough and you have connections in Washington DC, then you have different rules than everyone else.”

“There’s no more trust in our institutions,” he said.

The good news, Rasmussen said, is that the American people still believe in the rules they were brought up with.  They still believe in the American dream, they still think that they have the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and they still believe that this is a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

And, they’re going to show it at the polls in November, he said.