Phoenix, Arizona, April 23, 2013. Even before his recent vote in support of legislation to strengthen background checks for gun buyers, U.S. Senator John McCain’s job approval rating in Arizona had dropped to its lowest level (26%) in 21 years. Similarly, the proportion willing to classify his performance as “poor” now stands at 36 percent, the highest since we began tracking respect among the voting public for the job the Senator is doing in Washington. Additionally, 67 percent of Arizonans now opine that Arizona needs to elect someone to the U.S. Senate with new ideas and interests. Only 21 percent now believe that John McCain deserves another six year term. This view is shared across the state in that the proportion saying they would prefer a new U.S. Senator reaches 72 percent in Maricopa county, 67 percent in Pima county and 58 percent in the rural counties. Further, 61 percent of those are registered Republicans and 67 percent call themselves politically conservative hold the same view.
Senator McCain’s popularity has been edging downward fairly steadily since 2007 when it dipped below 50 percent and never recovered. By 2010, his job approval rating was at only 40 percent and by the summer of that year had subsided further to 36 percent. But this is the first survey when his job rating has dropped to below 30 percent.
This is also the first survey in which nearly every constituency group we measured had a more negative than positive rating of his performance in the Senate. The only exception was among Republicans, but even within their ranks the call is close, with 35 percent giving positive ratings and 28 percent poor.