The shutdown is taking a major political toll on the Republican party. A new poll shows independent voters have shifted away from Republicans by 21 points.
The survey from Public Policy Polling shows Democrats have a 42/33 lead among independent voters on the generic Congressional ballot, which is a 21-point swing from July of this year.
The same poll shows 51% of independent voters think Republicans are to blame for the government shutdown while 37% blame Democrats.
Other startling findings from the poll:
Congressional Democrats have a 39/56 approval rating, virtually identical to 39/57 a week ago. Congressional Republicans have actually seen their approval improve since the shutdown though from 23/69 to 29/65. The improvement has mostly come because of the GOP base embracing the shutdown and thus increasing in their approval of the Congressional GOP- they’ve gone from a 45/46 approval with Republican voters up to 52/39.
Republican voters nationally would like to replace John Boehner as Speaker with Ted Cruz, by a 40/37 margin. Democrats (29/18) and independents (34/31) jump to Boehner’s defense on the question and give him a 33/30 advantage overall.
