Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

People jog on the National Mall near the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

A plurality of voters don’t want split government, and would prefer one party to control both the White House and Congress, according to a Quinnipiac University poll out today.

The survey showed 48 percent of voters saying they want the same party in charge of both the executive and legislative branches, while 43 percent said they want political power divided. The Democrats currently control the White House and the Senate while the Republicans hold a majority in the House. Voters who said they were independents favored divided government, 53 percent to 35 percent.

Voters showed a preference for a Democratic congressional candidate over a Republican nominee,  41 percent to 37 percent margin. Democrats would need a net pickup of 17 seats to win back the House.

“The question, of course, is whether that margin will be there in 18 months when voters to go to the polls,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac polling institute.

That margin hasn’t been there in three of the last four off-year elections taking place during the last term of a two-term president. The party that didn’t control the White House gained congressional seats in 1958 (Dwight Eisenhower), 1986 (Ronald Reagan) and 2006 (George W. Bush). The exception: Democratic gains in 1998 under Bill Clinton.

Original post is Voters Weary of Divided Government by Political Capital.

Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, left, and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein leave the White House after they and 13 other bank heads met with President Barack Obama on March 27, 2009 in Washington, DC.

President Barack Obama will meet with the heads of the world’s biggest banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Lloyd C. Blankfein and JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon, seeking to strengthen ties that have been strained by new U.S. curbs on fees and trading.

The NTSB begins public meetings on the Boeing 787 lithium battery fire.

In the Senate, a cloture vote will determine whether lawmakers consider a bill to expand the background checks on gun purchases.

Bloomberg View Columnist Amity Shlaes joins a Cato Institute discussion on tax reform under President Calvin Coolidge.

Speaking of taxes, eliminating most deductions, lowering overall tax rates would be a “good idea,” voters say 47 percent to 35 percent, while 55 percent say the rich pay less than their fair share, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. Almost two-thirds of American voters have someone else prepare their tax return.

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and Acting OMB Director Jeffrey Zients head to Capitol Hill to sell the Obama administration’s budget to hearings of House and Senate committees, while the House Appropriations panel hears from Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank on her agency’s spending plans.

The House Armed Services Committee hears from Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey on the Pentagon’s budget request. The House Select Intelligence Committee holds a hearing on threats to the U.S. with witnesses including Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director Robert Mueller. The Atlantic Council holds a discussion of the future of the Air Force, with topics including budget cuts, competitor nations and new technologies.

A House Energy and Commerce panel, chaired by Rep. John Shimkus, an Illinois Republican, holds a hearing on the Coal Ash Recycling and Oversight Act of 2013 as the Senate Environment Committee hears from EPA head nominee Gina McCarthy at her confirmation hearing. NOAA holds a conference call on its Drought Task Force.

The rebound in homebuilding after a six-year slump should generate as many as 500,000 jobs this year and 700,000 in 2014, including related services, estimates Russell Price, a senior economist at Ameriprise Financial. Price is the top forecaster of employment over the past two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The SEC’s Dodd-Frank Investor Advisory Committee meets today. A Senate Banking panel holds a hearing on the role of regulators and consultants in the scrapped multibillion dollar settlement over mishandled foreclosures. A House Financial Services panel on capital markets holds a hearing on derivatives provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act.

The Washington International Trade Association holds the third in a four-part series of discussions on Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, this one on U.S. priorities and objectives. Bloomberg Government’s Robert Litan and Navigant Economics Managing Director Hal Singer discuss how FCC policies affect investment in telecommunications at ITIF.

And this evening, filmmakers Ken Burns and David McMahon discuss their film “The Central Park Five” after a screening at the National Press Club.

Original post is Washington Daybook: Banks, Budgets and Guns by Political Capital.

Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Charles “Charlie” Crist in Washington.

Charlie Crist, the only Florida governor to willingly decline a second term, looks well positioned if he wants his old job back. The second poll in as many days shows the Republican-turned-independent-turned Democrat leading incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Scott trailing by double digits in a potential race.

In the poll out this morning from Quinnipiac University, Crist leads Scott by a margin of 50 percent to 34 percent. A survey yesterday from  Public Policy Polling showed Crist up by 52 percent to 40 percent.

Scott’s approval rating was 36 percent, according to Quinnipiac, the 15th time the Connecticut college’s pollsters asked registered voters about Scott’s approval since he took office in 2011. Among all those polls, Scott’s approval rose as high as 41 percent and dropped as low as 29 percent.

If you’re a Scott fan looking for good news, it might be his 66 percent approval among Republicans. Granted, that’s nowhere near the 87 percent that U.S. Senator Marco Rubio enjoys within their party in the same poll. But Scott’s rating among GOP voters is up 3 percentage points since the last Q poll in December, and comes after he upset many tea party activists by supporting Medicaid expansion envisioned in President Barack Obama’s health care law and proposed a $74.2 billion budget, the largest in state history.

Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,000 registered voters from March 13-18, with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. PPP surveyed 500 Florida voters March 15-18, with a margin of error is 4.4 percentage points.

Original post is Crist’s Second Chance: Beating Scott by Political Capital.

The Quinnipiac survey taken Feb. 27-Mar. 4 showed 54 percent of Catholic voters supporting same-sex marriage, with 38 percent in opposition. That outpaced voters overall, who backed same-sex marriage by 47 percent to 43 percent.

“Catholic voters are leading American voters toward support for same-sex marriage,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac polling institute in Hamden, Connecticut.

Sixty-four percent of adult Catholics said the next pope should relax the church’s prohibition on contraception, while 28 percent disagreed. And by 51 percent to 41 percent, they approved of the Obama administration policy requiring church-based institutions, such as universities and hospitals, to provide access to birth control for employees through their insurance companies. The institutions themselves would not have to pay for coverage.

The survey also found 62 percent of Catholics saying the next pope should allow priests to marry and 81 percent calling on the church to do more to prevent sexual abuse by priests.

The poll of 497 adult Catholics had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points. A larger poll of 1,944 registered voters had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.

Original post is Catholics Back Same-Sex Marriage: Poll by Political Capital.

Photograph by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

A student pauses near a targets during a pistol class taught by King 33 Training at a shooting range on Feb. 24, 2013 in Wallingford, Connecticut.

This may come as little surprise, post-Newtown:

Connecticut voters support stronger gun control measures by a 2 to 1 margin, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll released today. Among women, 75 percent want stronger gun laws, the poll shows.

“The big takeaway from this is that Connecticut voters overwhelmingly support gun control measures,” said Douglas Schwartz, director of polling at Quinnipiac University, speaking at a news conference in Hartford.

The survey is the first Quinnipiac poll since the Dec. 14 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that left 20 children and six educators dead. The university had not recently surveyed on gun control — so it is unclear how attitudes have changed. “There is no trend data,” Schwartz said.

The poll shows 93 percent support background checks on all gun sales, 68 percent favor expanding the state ban on assault weapons and 68 percent want magazine clips to be reduced to 10 bullets from 30.

On the support for universal background checks, Schwartz said: “I’ve never seen numbers so high.”

Legislative leaders are set to begin meeting within the hour at the Hartford statehouse to craft an emergency gun control measure. The bill could be debated in both chambers as early as next week.

“I’m optimistic that we will reach a consensus on a meaningful bill,” said Connecticut House Speaker Brendan Sharkey, a Democrat, in an interview this afternoon. He said there was “every indication” that the bill would include universal background checks, a wider ban on assault weapons and smaller magazines.

tA bipartisan legislative committee failed to reach consensus yesterday on those measures, with Republican members balking at reducing magazine sizes and expanding the weapons ban. Democrats control both chambers in the Connecticut General Assembly and do not need Republican support to pass legislation.

Nevertheless, Democratic leaders said they’ve sought Republican input in part because they are not using the regular committee process to bring the bill to the floor.

“What gets lost in the conversation sometimes is the fact that this task force is an extraordinary process and one that is completely unprecedented and it outside what we normally do in the development of bills,” said Sharkey, of Hamden.

Original post is Connecticut Voters Back Gun Control, General Assembly Ready by Political Capital.

Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Hillary Clinton, U.S. secretary of state, arrives to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing chaired by Senator John Kerry, a Democrat from Massachusetts, left, in Washington, in this May 23, 2012 file photo.

What do you get when you cross high personal approval ratings for the retired Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with record approval ratings for the very-active New Jersey Governor Chris Christie?

A serious matchup for 2016 — at least in the Garden State.

Voters in the seriously blue state of New Jersey are in love with the humorously popular Christie: Giving the Republican governor a 74-percent approval rating in the lastest Quinnipiac University poll released today — a record for any New Jersey governor in Quinnipiac’s 17 years of polling there. Accordingly, voters also support his re-election, by 71-23 percent.

At the same time, New Jersey’s voters have a 67 percent favorable view of Clinton, the former chief diplomat, senator from New York and first lady who has stepped out of public office and joined a lucrative speaking circuit. That pretty much matches the view that voters hold of Clinton nationally.

So, match the two on a hypothetical ballot in 2016, and New Jersey’s voters — at least today — side with Clinton by a margin of 49-45 percent, which is basically a tie, statistically, in a survey with a 2.9 percent margin of error. The survey of 1,1149 registered voters was run Feb. 13-17.

Original post is Clinton v. Christie: Garden-State Thriller by Political Capital.

Photograph by Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg

Empty crates site next to a U.S. Postal Service (USPS) mail box in New York.

As the U.S. Postal Service proposes to suspend Saturday mail delivery, it appears few Americans will miss it.

American voters have supported  by a margin of 79-20 percent the idea of ending Saturday mail deliveries, a review of a Quinnipiac University poll on the shelf finds.

There’s less support for closing local branches of the Post Office, 53-45 percent against that.

And there is strong opposition to federal subsidies for the Postal Service — 57-38 percent — or raising stamp prices — 60-38 percent.

It should be noted that this is not a fresh poll. It was run Sept. 27 – Oct. 3, 2011. The survey of 2,118 registered voters had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.

Yet it’s unlikely that sentiment about that sixth day of bills and junk mail has changed much.

Original post is Americans Won’t Miss Saturday Mail by Political Capital.

Photograph by Chris Kleponis/Bloomberg

Mitch Behm, assistant inspector general of the U.S. Transportation Department, left, and Senator Frank Lautenberg, center, a Democrat from New Jersey, before the start of a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing in Washington.

Frank Lautenberg might not be having such a good birthday: A new poll says the U.S. senator from New Jersey is vulnerable, and another high-ranking Democrat says he’s weighing whether to take on Gov. Chris Christie in November or seek the Senate seat next year.

The Democrat, who turned 89 today, doesn’t deserve to be re-elected, voters said in the Quinnipiac University poll by a margin of 45 to 36 percent. Seventy-one percent of those surveyed said his age makes work in the Senate too difficult, and just 21 percent said it gives him “wisdom and experience.”

Caley Gray, a spokesman for Lautenberg, didn’t immediately return an e-mail or phone call seeking comment.

State Senate President Steve Sweeney, a Democrat from West Deptford, said he’s “keeping his options open” on whether he’ll challenge Christie in November or seek a seat in Washington in 2014. Sweeney in December filed papers with the Federal Election Commission to run for Senate.

“It’s an exploratory thing,” he said today by telephone. “I’m looking at that, and I’m looking at a run for governor. I have a lot of options.”

Sweeney’s decision-making harkens to New Jersey’s drama last month over whether popular Newark Mayor Cory Booker would opt to challenge Christie in the fall or go for federal office. Booker ended up ruling out a challenge to Christie and has formed a Senate exploratory committee.

At least two other Democrats have said they might have their eyes on Lautenberg’s seat. Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, a Democrat from East Orange, told the Star-Ledger of Newark that she’s considering a run. The state’s largest paper also said U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone is eyeing it as well.

Original post is Lautenberg Turns 89, Poll Negative by Political Capital.

Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

President Barack Obama during a meeting with governors in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.

Support for President Barack Obama’s call to let the Bush-era tax rates expire as planned for wealthier Americans, and trust leaning more toward the president and congressional Democrats  than congressional Republicans in handling the forthcoming convergence of scheduled tax hikes and spending cuts are shown in a new Quinnipiac University poll.

`Voters see Republicans as more likely to be obstructionist, and have less confidence in their ability to come up with the right solution to the nation’s financial woes,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac polling institute. The survey found 53 percent trusting Obama and congressional Democrats concerning the fiscal cliff, compared with 36 percent who trusted congressional Republicans.

By 56 percent to 38 percent, respondents said that they believed Obama and congressional Democrats would make a good-faith effort to work with Republicans. By 51 percent to 43 percent, they said congressional Republicans would not make the same effort to work with the other party.

As for solutions, 66 percent of respondents favored a combination of spending cuts and tax increases to reduce the deficit, with 65 percent saying income taxes should rise for those earning more than $250,000 a year; 51 percent opposing raising the eligibility age to 67 from 65 for Medicare, the health-care program for the elderly; and 70 percent opposing cuts in Medicaid, the health-care program for the needy.

Two percent of taxpayers and 3 percent of small businesses would pay more if the tax cuts expire as scheduled for those earning more than $250,000 a year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington-based research group.

The Quinnipiac poll was the second released this week giving the Democrats the upper hand in the fight over taxes and spending. A Pew Research Center/Washington Post survey taken Nov. 29-Dec. 2 found 53 percent of respondents planning to blame congressional Republicans if a solution is not reached, compared with 27 percent who would blame Obama.

Original post is Obama’s Calling Card: Another Poll by Political Capital.

Photograph by Jin Lee/Bloomberg

Rachel Baker, left, and Christine Tully wait in line to get their marriage license at the Manhattan City Clerk's office in New York.

First, voters in Maine, Maryland and Washington state legalized same-sex marriage in November. Now comes a new poll  showing strong support for that nationwide.

The survey by Hamden, Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University found 48 percent of U.S. voters supporting same-sex marriage, with 46 percent opposing it. In 2008, Quinnipiac’s polling  showed 55 percent opposing same-sex marriage against 36 percent approval.

“It seems pretty clear that attitudes toward same-sex marriage in American society are changing rapidly,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac’s polling institute. “While the country remains split on the issue, supporters have come pretty far in the last four years.”

The nation may not be split too much longer, as younger voters are more supportive than their parents.

Quinnipiac found 63 percent of voters aged 18 to 29 backing same-sex marriage.

Original post is Same-Sex Marriage Gains Support by Political Capital.