Here Are The Results of SurveyUSA News Poll #10479

Geography Surveyed: USA 50 States
Data Collected: 10/05/2006
Release Date: 10/06/2006 10:05 AM ET
Sponsors: KAAL-TV Rochester-Mason City-Austin, KABC-TV Los Angeles, KATU-TV Portland, KCTV-TV Kansas City, KEYE-TV Austin, KFOR-TV Oklahoma City, KGTV-TV San Diego, KING-TV Seattle, KOB-TV Albuquerque, KPIX-TV San Francisco, KPNX-TV Phoenix, KSDK-TV St. Louis, KSL-TV Salt Lake City, KSTP-TV Minneapolis, KTHV-TV Little Rock, KUSA-TV Denver, KWCH-TV Wichita, KXTV-TV Sacramento, WABC-TV New York, WBIR-TV Knoxville, WBZ-TV Boston, WCAU-TV Philadelphia, WCPO-TV Cincinnati, WCSC-TV Charleston, WCSH-TV Portland, WDBJ-TV Roanoke, WDIO-TV Duluth, WDIV-TV Detroit, WFLA-TV Tampa, WFMY-TV Greensboro, NC, WGRZ-TV Buffalo, WHAS-TV Louisville, WHEC-TV Rochester, WKRG-TV Mobile-Pensacola, WKYC-TV Cleveland, WLNE-TV Providence, WLTX-TV Columbia, SC, WMAR-TV Baltimore, WNYT-TV Albany, WOAI-TV San Antonio, WTLV-TV Jacksonville, WUSA-TV Washington, DC, WXIA-TV Atlanta, WYTV-TV Youngstown, WZZM-TV Grand Rapids

43% of Americans Say Hastert Should Resign From Congress, Another 20% Say Resign As Speaker But Remain in Congress: The number of Americans who say Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Dennis Hastert (R-IL) should resign from Congress decreased from Wednesday night 10/04/06 to Thursday night 10/05/06, following a Hastert press conference on 10/05, but still stands at 43% today 10/06/06, according to a nightly tracking survey of 1,000 USA adults, conducted by SurveyUSA for its media clients around the country. In interviews conducted Thursday night, after Hastert press conference: 27% of USA adults say Hastert should remain Speaker, 20% say Hastert should resign as Speaker but remain a member of Congress, and a plurality, 43%, say Hastert should resign from Congress. Twice as many Democrats say Hastert should resign from Congress as Republicans. Though Thursday night's polling data is not good news for Hastert, the data is an improvement from SurveyUSA interviews conducted 24 hours prior, on Wednesday night. Then, 49% of Americans said Hastert should resign from Congress, 17% said he should remain as Speaker, and 23% said he should resign his Leadership post but remain a member of Congress. Though the day-to-day movement is small, and some of it is within the survey's 3.2% margin of sampling error, the movement is consistent across the board and therefore worthy of comment. The number of Americans, between Wednesday and Thursday, who say Hastert should resign from Congress, fell among Republicans (from 36% on Wednesday to 27% on Thursday); among Democrats (from 57% on Wednesday to 54% on Thursday), among Independents (from 53% to 39%), among men (from 49% to 40%), among women (from 50% to 46%), among the Middle-Aged (from 53% to 44%). There are inherent limitations to surveys with short field periods; however, when a news story is changing hour-by-hour, nightly tracking studies can provide a valuable "freeze-frame" snapshot of what Americans were thinking at a moment in time. Exact wording of the question asked by SurveyUSA follows in the table below. Tracking data is available, as part of the Complete Interactive Crosstabs, by clicking on the "T" link.

1
  Asked of 1000 Adults
  Credibility Interval for this question = ± 3.2 percentage points.

Based on what you know right now, do you think Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert should remain in his position as Speaker of the House? Do you think he should resign as Speaker of the House but remain a member of Congress? Or do you think he should completely resign from Congress?

27% Remain Speaker
20% Resign Leadership
43% Resign From Congress
10% Not Sure

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