30% See No Point In Contacting Their Senator or Congressman
Thirty percent (30%) of Likely U.S. Voters believe it isn't worth the effort trying to contact their senator or congressman, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Fifty-six percent (56%) disagree and think it is worth the effort, while 14% more aren't sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
But then only 28% of voters think most members of Congress care what their constituents think. Fifty-one percent (51%) say most congressmen don't care what the voters at home think, and another 22% are not sure. Still, that's an improvement from mid-August when 60% said most members of Congress don't care.
No wonder that just 23% of voters think the federal government today has the consent of the governed.
Yet 53% think it is at least somewhat likely that a senator or congressman would change his or her mind on an issue after hearing from constituents. That includes 13% who say it's Very Likely. Thirty-eight percent (38%) think such a change of mind is unlikely, with nine percent (9%) who say it is Not At All Likely.
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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on October 16-17, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error 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.
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