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Pelosi Is Still Least Popular Congressional Leader

While she's much less often in the news these days, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi remains Congress' most disliked leader. But Pelosi earns higher favorables than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid whose popularity has fallen to its lowest level in over two years.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 28% of Likely U.S. Voters hold a favorable opinion of Pelosi, now the House minority leader, while 63% view her unfavorably. This includes eight percent (8%) with a Very Favorable impression of the San Francisco congresswoman and 45% with a Very Unfavorable one. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Pelosi’s unfavorable ratings have ranged from a low of 52% to a high of 64% since mid-February 2009. 

By comparison, Pelosi's successor, current Speaker John Boehner, is viewed at least somewhat favorably by 37% and unfavorably by 39%. These findings include 10% who have a Very Favorable opinion of the Ohio congressman and 18% who view him Very Unfavorably. Twenty-five percent (25%), however, still don't know enough about Boehner to voice an opinion of him.

The number of voters who see Boehner in a favorable light shows no change from last month.  As media coverage of Boehner increased following the Republican takeover of the House in the November elections, his favorable ratings climbed steadily to a high of 47% in March.  Prior to November, Boehner's favorables had ranged from 21% to 32% since January 2009, but he was largely unknown to a sizable number of voters.

(Want a free daily e-mail update ? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.  

 The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters nationwide was conducted on May 29-30, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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