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By James Q. Lynch, The Gazette

CEDAR RAPIDS Its still the economy, stupid.

Koch brothers, climate change, accusations of a scandal-a-week gubernatorial administration and the need for renewable fuels standards in a perfect world may be making headlines. But voters say the economy is their top issue going into the Nov. 4 midterm election.

That doesnt portend a Republican wave election, but Bill McInturff, a leading Republican pollster who, together with Democrat Peter Hart, conducts the NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll, said it is good news for Republicans who believe economic data and the publics sour perception of the economy are moving voters their direction.

Its going to be a very good year for Republicans with a 50-50 shot of taking the U.S. Senate, McInturff said.

Not so fast, counters Celinda Lake of the Democratic Lake Research Partners, which, with the Republican Tarrance Group, conducted the George Washington University Battleground Poll of 1,000 likely voters that was released this week.

It found that Democrats get better marks (43 to 35 percent) than the Republicans for solving problems, standing up for the middle class (54 to 36 percent) and representing middle-class values (52 to 39 percent).

Most attention has focused on the U.S. Senate, where Republicans need a net gain of six seats to gain control. The GOP is expected to pick up a handful of seats in the House it outnumbers Democrats 234 to 201.

Overall, Republicans see their chances of controlling both chambers of Congress improving because polls show voters disapprove of President Barack Obamas handling of the economy. Also, by a 36 to 29 percent margin voters told the Battleground Poll the economy is worse than it was four years ago.

If Republicans can tie Iowa Democratic Senate hopeful U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley to the presidents unpopular policies, that may hurt more than actual economic conditions, according to Chris Larimer, an associate professor of political science at University of Northern Iowa.

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Republicans heartened polls show economy still top issue for voters