WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats are gladly taking up President Obama’s offer to stay away from their re-election campaigns.
Nearly every incumbent up for re-election and aspiring Democratic Senate candidates across the country are forgoing visits from the once-popular president, according to a survey by Politico.
“I don’t care to have him campaign for me,” declared Alaska Sen. Mark Begich.
With Democrats struggling to hold on to a majority in the Senate, Obama’s poll numbers are dismal in key states, including Alaska, Arkansas and West Virginia.
Incumbents in Louisiana and North Carolina were steering clear of the president long before his offer last week to keep away.
Even in Obama’s home state of Illinois, Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin’s re-election campaign won’t commit to an event with the president — and Durbin is considered one of the safest Democrats this election cycle.
Most Democrats consider Obama “an albatross,” said Greg Valliere, chief political strategist for the independent Potomac Research Group.
“ObamaCare has done irreversible damage to the president’s reputation,” he said.