We've written a ton here about how the name of the first female speaker of the House has been invoked frequently as a political slur in Georgia's 6th congressional district.
Now some new data suggests why Republican groups have consistently used Nancy Pelosi to try and knock down Democrat Jon Ossoff in Georgia's nationally-watched special election.
A new Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll shows that 58 percent of likely voters in the 6th hold an unfavorable view of Pelosi, now the House minority leader. As speaker from 2007 to 2011, Pelosi helped engineer the House passage of Obamacare and the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul.
The ABT Associates survey shows the hatred isn't only concentrated among Republican voters (of which only 4 percent hold a favorable view): among independents, nearly two-thirds said they weren't fans of the California Democrat. Even among the Democrats surveyed, Pelosi's support level wasn't all that high. Only 71 percent said they viewed her favorably.
The numbers show why outside groups such as the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Congressional Leadership Fund have leaned on Pelosi time and time again as their preferred bogeyman in television attack ads in the 6th district -- even in Montana. It also shows why Republican Karen Handel mentioned Pelosi more than 10 times during this week's first debate.
For his part, Ossoff has avoided saying much of anything about Pelosi or whether he'd vote for her as speaker of the House should he be elected to Congress.
Pelosi herself has weighed on the GOP attacks against her back in April:
"Well, when Republicans put forth these ads, it shows the bankruptcy of their own initiatives. The voters in their districts want to know what they are going to do for them," Pelosi told Meet the Press. "But since you brought it up, and I'm glad you did, I think it's really important for the voters in those districts to know who the candidates will be voting with."
The AJC poll was conducted June 5-8 by ABT Associates and involved 745 likely voters. The margin of error is +/- 4 percentage points. Peruse the crosstabs here, and check out the MyAJC politics site for more coverage.
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