From the Associated Press:

Ah, the cruelty. Veteran lawmakers who toiled for years in Congress waiting for a chance at political promotion have discovered an inconvenient truth: This election year, Washington experience is a career-ender.

Four House members who abandoned their seats to run for governor have failed to survive their party primaries, and the list could grow in the coming weeks. Tennessee Rep. Zach Wamp was the latest to stumble in Thursday’s Republican primary.

Add these losses to the six incumbents who have been defeated in their re-election bids and it signals an electorate sour on Washington.

“People hate Congress,” said nine-term Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, who was pounded by rivals’ ads about Wall Street bailouts, money for district projects and rising debt in his losing bid for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. “It was a hurdle that had to be overcome, or it was some baggage that you had to carry.”

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Two-thirds of registered voters who responded to a recent survey say the federal stimulus packages has not resulted in the improvement of the Western Illinois economy

The poll, commissioned by QuincyNews.org, was conducted by We Ask America on November 22 between 4:30 PM – 6:30.  In all, 15,000 random residential phone numbers of registered voters in the 17th Congressional District were dialed, resulting in 1,278 people taking the poll. The numbers dialed were randomly selected.

The results have a margin of error of ± 2.74 %.

Of those who responded, 66.7 % say the stimulus package hasn’t improved the economy. Just under 22 percent said there had been an improvement while 11.5 percent were not sure.

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