Polls

Most voters believe that the Benghazi or Internal Revenue Service (IRS) scandals will still be major news in 2014, according to a new Rasmussen poll.

A new poll shows Democrat Terry McAuliffe with a slim lead in the race for Virginia governor, ahead of Republican state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

The poll showing the GOP candidate with 43 percent support to Rep. Markey's 46 comes after a rough week for Gomez.

Sens. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.) may have improved their 2014 electoral prospects with their decision to support legislation expanding background checks, according to a new poll released Thursday.

The survey by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling found that more than 70 percent of voters in both states support closing the gun show and Internet loopholes, and pluralities are more likely to vote for Hagan and Landrieu because of their vote.

In Louisiana, 45 percent of voters in the state say they are more likely to support Landrieu after the gun vote, while just 25 percent say they're less likely. Landrieu's approval rating has risen six points from February, and 72 percent of voters in the state say they favor background checks.

Americans by a slim margin say they are more likely to vote for Democrats than Republicans in the upcoming 2014 midterm elections, according to a new national poll from Quinnipiac University released Wednesday.

In a generic ballot survey, 41 percent of those polled say they would back a Democratic candidate while 37 percent say they would vote Republican. Voters also appear wary of continuing to push forward with divided government, preferring one party to control both houses of Congress and the White House by a 48-43 percent margin.

That said, the margin might not be significant enough for Democrats to feel comfortable heading into 2014. The party that controls the White House traditionally loses seats in midterm elections; moreover, redistricting in the House and retirements in the Senate have left Democrats vulnerable headed into the upcoming elections.

Forty-eight percent said they approve of the job Toomey is doing, against 30 who said they disapprove.

Fifty-one percent said Clinton is running in 2016, and a plurality, 41 percent, believes she will be the Democratic nominee.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Biden would both be favored over top Republican presidential candidates in a hypothetical 2016 match-up, according to a McClatchy-Marist poll released Wednesday.

The Democrats handily beat Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Fla.), and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in head-to-head contests. Only one Republican — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — was competitive with the Democrats, narrowly edging Biden and narrowly trailing Clinton.

Clinton was favored by 12 percentage points over Rubio, 11 points over Paul, 16 points over Bush and 3 points over Christie. Biden trailed the New Jersey governor 46 percent to 43 percent but held a 14-point edge over Rubio, a 9-point advantage on Paul and an 8-point lead over Bush.

A new poll looking ahead to the 2016 GOP presidential race shows a tight contest, with no clear frontrunner for the Republican nomination.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, long considered a strong contender for the Republican 2016 presidential nomination, has seen his home state approval ratings dip below those of even President Obama, according to a new poll.

The survey, conducted by Southern Media Opinion & Research, placed Jindal's approval rating at 38 percent — a 13-point dip from last October. By contrast, 43 percent of those surveyed approved of President Obama's handling of his job.

The survey indicated that some of the major initiatives championed by Jindal — including cuts to the state's higher education and healthcare budgets, along with plans to privatize the state's charity hospitals — have begun to wear on his popularity. Jindal's tax reform plan, which would eliminate corporate and income taxes and replace them with a state sales tax, proved particularly unpopular, with just 27 percent of respondents supporting it.