Public Opinion Frozen on Judicial Nomination Battle

According to the Rasmusen poll, results on judicial nominees and the nuclear option are a bit surprising than what is being broadly reported.

57% of Americans say that “Senate rules should be changed so that a vote must be taken on every person the President nominates to become a judge.” That’s unchanged from two weeks ago.

The only change of more than a point or two in the data came when we asked about the threat of some Democrats to procedurally shut down the Senate if the filibuster rules are changed. Two weeks ago, 51% of Americans were opposed to that strategy. Opposition to Democrats’ retaliation has increased to 55% in the current survey.

Democrats around the country are divided on the strategy proposed by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid–41% in Reid’s party support the threatened shutdown and 33% are opposed. That’s little changed over the past week.
Republicans oppose the shutdown strategy by a 10–to-1 margin. The GOP is more unified on this point than they were two weeks ago.

Among those not affiliated with either major party, 48% now oppose the Democrats’ retaliation strategy, up from 43% two weeks ago.

Other survey findings show that 49% now believe that all of the President’s nominees should be guaranteed an up or down vote on the floor of the Senate.