Republicans now hold a six-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 45% of Likely Voters would vote for their district's Republican congressional candidate, while 39% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent. The survey data was collected on the seven days ending Sunday, August 29, 2010.
 
The Republicans have been consistently ahead in the Generic Ballot every week for over a year, but this is the smallest advantage the party has held since mid-July..

The GOP edge hasn’t fallen below five points since the beginning of December and it peaked at twelve points two weeks ago. GOP support since June 2009 has ranged from 41% to 48%. Support for Democrats in the same period has run from 35% to 40%.

In other Election 2010 news, the Rasmussen Reports Gubernatorial Scorecard shows nine Governorships switching from a Democrat to a Republican and three going the other way. Eight races remain Toss-Ups (Florida, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin).

The Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 Balance of Power  summary shows that Democrats are likely to end up with 49 Senators after this year’s election and the GOP will hold 46 Senate seats. Five races remain Toss-Ups (California, Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, and Wisconsin).

Voters now trust Republicans more than Democrats on all 10 of the important issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports. 

(Want a free daily e-mail update ? If it's in the news, it's in our polls).  Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

Results for this survey are compiled on a full-week basis and crosstabs for full-week results and generic ballot trends are available for Platinum Members only.
 
The Generic Ballot results were much different during the last two election cycles when Democrats regularly had large leads. When President Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, Democrats enjoyed a seven-point advantage. The two parties were very close through the spring of 2009, but in June, around the time Democrats began their campaign for health care reform, Republicans pulled ahead for good.

Eighty-five percent (85%) of Republicans back their party's candidate, while 83% of Democrats support the candidate of their party.  Voters not affiliated with either party prefer the GOP candidate by a 44% to 23% margin.
 
The number of Republicans in the United States slipped a point during July, while the number of unaffiliated voters gained a point. Overall, the numbers signal a high level of stability in the parties since there have been only modest shifts throughout 2010.

As the U.S. economy continues to stumble along, voters are now almost evenly divided over whether last year’s $787-billion economic stimulus plan has helped or hurt.

Just over half of U.S. voters continue to believe that the new health care law will increase the cost of care and believe the law will be bad for the country. 

With mid-term elections just over two months away, roughly one-in-four U.S. voters (26%) say they consider themselves part of the Tea Party movement or have close friends or family members who are involved with it.

Sixty-one percent (61%) of U.S. Voters feel finding new sources of energy is more important now than reducing the amount of energy Americans now consume. 

Thirty-eight percent (38%) of voters say that most judges in the country are too liberal. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 18% believe most judges are too conservative and 31% say the judges are about right ideologically. 

Rasmussen Reports has recently surveyed House races in North Dakota and South Dakota and Senate races in Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware,  Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
 
Rasmussen Reports also has released recent polls on the 2010 governor's races in Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan,   Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
 
Please sign up for the Rasmussen Reports daily e-mail update (it's free) or follow us on Twitter or Facebook. Let us keep you up to date with the latest public opinion news.
 
Crosstabs are available to Platinum Members.