Poll: Driehaus trails Chabot by 17 points

Another day, another SurveyUSA poll showing a Democratic member of the House down 17 points to his Republican challenger.

Yesterday, it was Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.), who announced his retirement on the same day the alarming poll was released. This time, the latest SurveyUSA poll shows Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Ohio), a freshman Democrat who represents the Cincinnati area, losing to former Republican congressman Steve Chabot, 56 to 39 percent.

The automated poll was commissioned by the liberal blog Firedoglake, which plans to survey other competitive House races in the upcoming weeks. It surveyed 600 likely voters from Jan. 12-14.

Driehaus ousted Chabot from office in the 2008 election, 52 to 47 percent, aided by very high African-American turnout in the district. But like in other competitive districts across the country, public dissatisfaction with President Obama and the Democrat has grown markedly in Ohio’s 1st District.

The poll shows Obama with only a 42 percent job approval rating with 55 percent disapproving of his performance in office. The district is one of the most competitive in the country: It gave President Obama 55 percent of the vote last year, but gave former President Bush 51 percent of the vote in 2004.

An anti-abortion Democrat who called himself a “raging moderate” in his 2008 election, Driehaus has been a reliable backer of party leadership. He voted for the Democrats’ health care bill last year, but only committed to its passage until the anti-abortion Stupak Amendment was added to the legislation.

He also supported the cap-and-trade energy legislation, another vote that could give him problems as he vies for a second term.
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