Poll finds strong anti-Washington feeling

WASHINGTON — Extremely high anti-incumbent feelings toward Congress are shaping potentially brutal midterm elections that typically see losses for the party that controls the White House, a poll found. Those anti-incumbent feelings match the high levels of 2006 and 1994 — both years when control of Congress changed hands.

A Pew Research Center poll of registered voters released Friday found just fewer than half of voters would like to see their current member of Congress win another term and a fifth of voters said they would consider their vote as one against President Barack Obama.

With the struggling economy, unemployment at 9.7 percent and billions of taxpayer dollars used to bail out Wall Street, populist anger toward Washington is setting up an election year when voters have a strong "throw-the-bums-out" sentiment.

Pew interviewed 1,383 adults by cell or home phone, including 1,129 registered voters, from Feb. 3-9. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.