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As the days leading up to the 2010 mid-term elections fall away, it seems that independent and undecided voters are turning toward Republican candidates.
Swing voters are particularly important to both sides, but voter frustration with the current state of affairs across the country is causing previously Democratic independent voters to lean in favor of Republican candidates.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Democratic pollster David Beattie said that independents are voting against the Democratic candidates because of President Obama. “This race is all about President Obama,” he said. Stuart Rothenberg said he believed the Republicans could pick up as many as 70 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives; they only need 39 to take control away from the Democrats.
Is Obama taking independent votes from Democrats across the nation?
By and large, independent voters who supported Democrats in 2006 and 2008 are now supporting Republican candidates, the WSJ report said. In a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 52% of independent voters indicated that they would be supporting the GOP on Election Day. Not coincidentally, the poll also found that President Obama, who won a majority 52% of independent votes in 2008, now only has a job-approval rating of 40% among those same voters.