WASHINGTON — When New Jersey and Virginia voters elected non-incumbent Republicans in last week’s gubernatorial races, the GOP trumpeted the results as a turning tide.

A new poll by the Pew Research Center — a non-partisan, Washington-based think tank — suggests that Republicans might be on to something.

In a show of rising anti-incumbent sentiment, 34 percent of 1,644 registered voters polled by the center over the past two weeks said they want most members of the Democrat-controlled Congress re-elected.

Just 52 percent said they wanted their own member of Congress re-elected.

The percentages for those two measurements are the lowest taken by the Pew poll since the 1994 and 2006 mid-term elections, when the majority party in both houses of Congress lost control.

There’s a big difference in intensity, too, and the poll suggests that the energized Democrats who propelled President Barack Obama last year might have lost some of their charge. Among the Republican-leaning who were polled, 58 percent said they were “very” enthusiastic about voting. But only 42 percent of Democrats described themselves as very enthusiastic.

The Pew Research Center goes on to detail the public’s frustration with health care proposals (it says 38 percent of respondents favor the health care proposals being considered by Congress) and Obama’s handling of the war in Afghanistan (36 percent approve). Even so, Obama’s approval rating has changed little since July.

Obama runs the risk of further alienating his Democratic base if he decides to send additional troops to Afghanistan, as his top military adviser in the region, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has suggested.

So what conclusions can be drawn?

It suggests the public has cooled on the Democratic Party that took back Congress in 2006 and the White House in 2008 amid the country’s economic struggles and health care debate. Pundits have predicted Republicans will gain ground in next year’s mid-terms, but perhaps not sufficiently to overcome large Democratic majorities and reclaim either chamber of Congress.

Still, it’s hard to predict winners one year out from election day. And a lot can change in 12 months.