Rasmussen: 59% of GOP Voters Say Party's Lawmakers Out of Touch

The majority of Republican voters believe their representatives in Congress are out of touch with their party's base, a new Rasmussen Reports poll reveals, while Democrats are satisfied with their Congress members.

The telephone survey of 1,000 likely voters,conducted April 9-10, revealed that more than half the Republican respondents, 59 percent, say their representatives have lost touch with them. the numbers are down slightly from 65 percent last August and radically from an all-time high of 73 percent in October 2009.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The report revealed that 63 percent of likely Democrat voters believe their party's representatives are doing a good job following their party's values, numbers that have gone up slightly from 59 percent eight months ago. Another one-third disagreed, though, saying their representatives are not in touch with Democratic voters.

Overall, 67 percent of the 1,000 surveyed think Republicans are out of touch with the party's base, while 45 percent think Democrats in Congress are out of touch.

Meanwhile, Republican voters are almost evenly divided over whether their representatives are more conservative than they are. Twenty-three percent said the average GOP congressman is more conservative, while 28 percent said the member is more liberal, and 38 percent said they believe the average representative is about the same as they are.

With Democrats, 45 percent said the average Democratic congressman is equally liberal with them. About 19 percent said they think the representative is more conservative, and 27 percent said the Congress member is more liberal.

In addition, 77 percent of the Republican voters polled said it is somewhat important for their D.C. representation to work closely with the tea party movement, while 44 percent said it is very important. But only 38 percent believe the tea party will help Republicans compete in this year's midterm elections.

And although voters are evenly divided when asked if they agree politically more with President Barack Obama or with the tea party, but there was a large partisan gap, with 77 percent of Democrats saying their views align more with Obama's while 76 percent of Republicans said they agree with the tea party movement. Meanwhile, about half of all voters not affiliated with any party said they identify with an average tea party member, not Obama.

Only 30 percent of voters who are not affiliated with either party said they share the average lawmaker's views, whether Democrat or Republican. Thirty-eight percent of them believe the average GOP lawmaker is more conservative than they are, while 39 percent say the average Democrat official is more liberal.

Related Stories:

• Rasmussen: GOP Considered More Trustworthy Than Dems
  
• Rasmussen: 45% Trust Republicans More Than Democrats on Economy