Yesterday there was a lot of discussion of this poll which appeared to show a sharp drop-off in support for senators who voted against the recent background checks bill. But there was something else that was in some ways even more eye-popping hiding there in plain site. Freshman Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) is really, really unpopular.
According to PPP, Flake’s current approval rating, just a few months into his first term, stands at 32%.
Now Flake has almost six years to repair those numbers. So he’s probably not sweating that report too much. But regardless of what the cause is those are extremely poor numbers for someone who was just elected by a relatively comfortable margin about six months ago.
The gun control vote is one explanation and gun control groups like Bloomberg’s are advertising against him back home. It’s also possible that in addition to disappointing gun control advocates he also put off gun rights types by seeming to get close to voting for the legislation he eventually opposed. Flake’s generally well-respected in the state, the sort of Republican who has a relatively good rep with Dems, even as they oppose him on issues and vote against him. He’s very conservative but not terribly partisan in the more snarling sense of the word. And that’s made him never quite beloved on the right in the state.
Then there’s immigration. Flake’s pro-immigration reform and a member of the Gang of 8. Given how much of the Arizona GOP is built around hostility to immigration and, let’s be honest, Hispanics, it’s always been a little unclear to me how an Arizona Republican manages to pull that off. It even put McCain in some jeopardy in 2010.
It’s just one poll. Maybe it’s a wild outlier. And it’s hard to know exactly what’s behind it. But man, that is a really, really bad number.
