Poll: Public wants Senate action on court nominee, but interest is modest

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Nearly 2 in 3 Americans back Democrats’ demands that the Republican-run Senate have hearings and a vote on President Barack Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court. But an Associated Press-GfK poll also suggests that GOP defiance against considering the nominee may not hurt the party much because to many people, the election-year fight is simply not a big deal.

Just 1 in 5 in the survey released Wednesday said they’ve been following the battle over Obama’s nomination of federal judge Merrick Garland extremely or very closely.

That included just 26 percent of Democrats and 22 percent of Republicans expressing intense interest, along with a scant 8 percent of independents. That aligns with the political reading of the issue by many Republicans that while it motivates each side’s most committed partisans, people in the middle consider it a yawner – making the fight essentially a wash.

Another clue that voters not dedicated to either party find the court fight tiresome: While just over half of Democrats and Republicans said the issue is extremely or very important, only about a third of independents said so.

Among people overall, half said the nomination battle is of top-tier importance. But 8 in 10 said that about the economy, and 7 in 10 said so about health care and the threat posed by the Islamic State group. Immigration and the U.S. role in world affairs both attracted slightly more intensity of interest than the court battle.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., was among several senators who met privately Wednesday with Garland as he continues courtesy calls on lawmakers.

Ayotte, who faces a competitive re-election this fall, said in a statement that she told him with a “vigorous” presidential campaign underway, “the confirmation process should wait until the people have spoken in November” and a new president is chosen.