Entries for August 17, 2006

Some interesting numbers in SurveyUSA's latest monthly job approval ratings of all 100 U.S. senators. Up at the top, as usual, are North Dakota's two Democrats, Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, and Maine's two Republicans, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe. All four are from the party that lost their states in the 2000 and 2004 presidential election. But they are small states, with geographically dispersed populations, in which it's possible for a senator to stay in personal touch with a large proportion of his or her constituents. Conrad, Dorgan, Snowe, and Collins evidently have done a good job of this.