Jeff Flake Learns To Be Disliked

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http://www.buzzfeed.com/katenocera/jeff-flake-learns-to-be-disliked



WASHINGTON — For Sen. Jeff Flake, it hasn't been easy leaving the comfortable confines of the House, where he spent a dozen years as one of the chamber's conservative superstars.

Once a popular, leading voice for fiscal conservatism in Arizona, in his his first few months in the upper chamber, Flake has been buffeted by the new and often unfamiliar political winds that come from representing not just one small congressional district but an entire state.

His vote against a tough new background check gun control measure tanked his popularity in Arizona — with a 32 percent approval rating, he ranks at the bottom of the Senate. And his involvement in the bipartisan Gang of Eight immigration reform group is threatening to unleash a storm of conservative criticism Flake isn't accustomed to.

"Nothing like waking up to a poll saying you're the nation's least popular senator. Given the public's dim view of Congress in general, that probably puts me somewhere just below pond scum," he wrote on Facebook Monday. "Now, notwithstanding the polling firm's leftist bent, I would assume that my poll numbers have indeed taken a southerly turn since my vote against the Manchin-Toomey background check proposal. It was a popular amendment, and I voted against it."