Despite The Grousing, Voters Rarely Fire Lawmakers

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is wildly unpopular.

In fact, two-thirds of Americans want their own House member booted.

And the tea party is dogging longtime Republican lawmakers.

So incumbents are sweating out this year's election, right?

Nope. Mostly they're not.

People talk about throwing the bums out, but voters keep sending the same bunch back in.

More than halfway through the party primaries, 293 House and Senate members have completed their quests for renomination.

The score: incumbents 291, challengers 2.

Over the past five decades, voters have routinely returned 9 of 10 incumbent candidates to the House. Senate races are a bit less predictable, but usually more than 80 percent of incumbents win.

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