42% View Chamber of Commerce Favorably; 58% Share Favorable Opinion of AMA

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the major lobbying force in Washington, DC for the business community, but voters have mixed feelings about the organization.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 42% of Likely U.S. Voters have at least a somewhat favorable view of the national Chamber of Commerce, while 41% regard it at least somewhat unfavorably. This includes nine percent (9%) with a Very Favorable opinion and 10% with a Very Unfavorable one. Seventeen percent (17%) are not sure what they think of the Chamber. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of the Political Class view the Chamber favorably, compared to 42% of Mainstream voters.

But then most voters overwhelmingly believe that government and big business work together against the interests of consumers and investors. 

The national Chamber of Commerce has historically been regarded as a fairly conservative organization, but recently it has taken some positions that put it at odds with many conservative voters. In one case, it joined with the Obama administration in an unsuccessful legal challenge of an Arizona law cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants. Voters, especially Republicans, strongly support such a law.  More recently the Chamber has been pushing for a bipartisan deal to raise the federal debt ceiling despite Republican opposition to tax increases Democrats want to make part of that deal.

Still, 52% of GOP voters hold a favorable opinion of the Chamber, a view shared by only 36% of Democrats and 37% of voters not affiliated with either of the major parties.

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These two national surveys of 1,000 Likely Voters were conducted on June 30-July 1, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error for each survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.