61% of Arizona Republicans Say McCain Out of Touch With Party Base

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Arizona Senator John McCain was the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2008, but he’s always had a challenging relationship with the GOP’s base voters.

A new Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey finds that 61% of Arizona Republicans think McCain has lost touch with those in his own party. That’s up eleven points from 50% in May. Only 33% of the Republican faithful in the state believe McCain has done a good job representing GOP values.

The good news for McCain is that his numbers aren’t as bad as some of his colleagues. Nationally, 74% of Republican voters say their representatives in Congress have lost touch with the GOP base.

Despite expected challenges to his reelection, 75% of Arizona Republicans say it’s likely McCain will win next year's GOP Primary. Among all voters, 71% believe he will win the nomination. The gap between the number who say McCain has lost touch with the party base and the number who say he’s likely to win the nomination is huge. But 50% of voters nationally think high reelection rates result from election rules that are “rigged to benefit members of Congress.â€