Newsweek poll puts Democrats far ahead in Cong

Washington, Oct 22: More than half of Americans, 55 percent, would like to see Democrats take control of Congress, according to a poll by Newsweek magazine.

The poll of 1,000 likely voters found that 55 percent would choose a Democrat to represent their district if the vote were held now, and 37 percent said they would vote Republican.

This includes 31 percent of white evangelical Christians, an increase of 6 points among that strongly Republican group over the 2004 elections.

''Similarly, Democrats now lead among white Catholics, a group that went for President George W Bush in the 2004 presidential election,'' Newsweek said in a statement yesterday.

The poll, which had a margin of error of 4 percentage points, found that 44 percent of white Catholics planned to vote Democrat and 42 percent planned to vote Republican.

The poll found that 57 percent of those surveyed disapprove of Bush's job performance and just 35 percent approve. And it found that 67 percent are dissatisfied with the direction in which things are moving in the United States.

While 65 percent of those polled felt the United States was losing ground in Iraq, only 31 percent said the issue was the most important factor behind their vote this year for members of Congress.

Some 18 percent said the economy was most important while 16 percent said healthcare was most important to them.

But 74 percent said a top priority for Congress should be to make changes to allow the government to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices for seniors, and this included 70 percent of Republicans.

And 68 percent of those polled said raising the minimum wage should also be a top priority.

Of those sampled, 282 identified themselves as Republicans, 349 as Democrats and 330 as Independents.

Reuters