Burned by reports he's more visitor than resident in the state he represents, Kansas Republican Sen. Pat Roberts' approval rating has taken a hit over the last year, a new poll showed Friday.
Public Policy Polling's survey in February of 2013 showed Roberts was in positive territory with 31 percent of voters approving, and 28 percent disapproving.
PPP's
latest survey found only 29 percent approved, and 38 percent disapproved.
The results come in the wake of a New York Times report that Roberts
doesn't have a home in his home state — and pays rent to stay at the home of donors whenever he's in Kansas.
Roberts' tea party primary challenger, Milton Wolf, has used the controversy in ads against Roberts.
Still, Roberts has the support of 49 percent of voters compared with Wolf's 23 percent support.
But the poll stated Roberts may be in trouble if his challenger becomes better known.
Only 24 percent of GOP primary voters are familiar with Wolf, and Roberts only leads a generic "more conservative" primary opponent 43 percent to 39 percent.
In other troubling data, 42 percent think Roberts pays more attention to Washington than Kansas, compared with 34 percent who think the opposite; and 40 percent think he doesn't spend enough time in his home state, compared with 32 percent who disagree, the poll found.
The poll has a plus or minus margin of error of 5.1 percentage points.