THE CONGRESSIONAL RACE – AT 11:36 A.M. ET:  With so much attention focused on the presidential race, we tend to put aside the equally critical congressional races.  If Obama is re-elected, perish the thought, the only thing standing between us and ruination would be a Republican Congress.

Scott Rasmussen tells us where things now stand:

Republicans, as they have for nearly three years now, continue to lead Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot, this time for the week ending Sunday, April 15.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 46% of Likely U.S. Voters would vote for the Republican in their district’s congressional race if the election were held today, while 36% would choose the Democrat instead. This is the largest gap between the two parties since the beginning of 2011. It also doubles the gap found a week ago when the Republican led by five points, 45% to 40%.

The national telephone survey of 3,500 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports from April 9-15, 2012. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 2 percentage point with a 95% level of confidence.

COMMENT:  The numbers will fluctuate, as Rasmussen indictates, especially at this stage of the campaign, before voters are focused on individual candidates.  But if Republicans can hold the House and take the Senate, that would be a major step forward in bringing Washington under some control, even if Obama is back.  If Romney is elected, with a Republican Congress, we can get things done.

We'll follow the congressional races as carefully as we follow the presidential contest.

April 22, 2012