Wisconsin residents feel they are taking a backseat to special interests and personal agendas in state and local governments, a new study revealed Tuesday.

Wisconsin Policy Research Institute Inc., a non-profit, non-partisan organization which studies public-policy issues in the state, reported only 6 percent of Wisconsinites said elected officials represent the interests of their constituents.

The survey also found 40 percent of residents polled feel state and local officials are representing special interests and 47 percent said politicians' own interests were put ahead of the interests of their voters.

"We asked Wisconsin residents whose interests they felt elected officials represented the most," WPRI President James Miller said. "I think this shows there's a growing disconnect between elected officials and residents in the state."

Miller also said the survey, which polled 600 Wisconsin residents, indicated residents are becoming frustrated with local and state governments.

"It's an astonishing figure when this poll says that only 6 percent of the citizens of Wisconsin believe that their elected officials represent their interests," Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, said.

In addition, 9 percent of survey respondents said they thought the ethics of state government has improved over the past 10 years, while more than 45 percent said they felt ethics had gotten worse.

"It's basically a vote of 'no confidence' in elected officials," Heck said.

Heck said sweeping dissatisfaction with elected officials could potentially result in an overhaul of public office.

"It's an indictment of elected officials and their responsiveness to citizens' concerns," Heck said. "If I were an elected official, I'd be very concerned about this because these are the kinds of numbers you see right before people get ready to 'throw the bums out.'"

University of Wisconsin professor of political science Charles Franklin said the state poll is reminiscent of an ongoing downward slip in national morale concerning government integrity.

"Public trust in the government has been declining since the 1950s," Franklin said. "In national polling data, if you ask people, the trend in that variable has been getting more and more cynical — this is not a recent development."

Franklin said in light of the decline, the data from the WPRI poll is not surprising.

In the past, Franklin said, Wisconsin government had a reputation of being "relatively clean."

However, recent scandals in local, state and national governments have led to growing distrust in elected officials among state residents, both Franklin and Heck said.

"This is a state that, in the past, has thought highly of government at all levels," Heck said, though noting the Legislative Caucus Scandal, the Pension Scandal in Milwaukee and questionable campaign-finance practices in the state may have marred voters' views of state officials. "The last six or seven years have been non-stop scandal."

A similar poll conducted by WPRI in March 2002 indicated 21 percent of residents in the state felt their elected officials represented their voters' interests — the 15 percent drop may be partly due to such scandals, Franklin added.

Though national approval of elected officials rose slightly after the Sept. 11 attacks, Franklin said, such ratings fell in the months after Sept. 11, declined further amid the Iraqi war and continued their decent in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Despite this, Franklin said the dramatic plummet in public faith in the state's elected officials seems to be too high.

"The change from 21 percent in 2002 to 6 percent, that's a stunning change — such a big change makes me wonder about that part of the poll itself," Franklin said, expressing concern the survey may be skewed.

The results of the poll have also caught the attention of several state legislators, one of whom is now calling for state action on the matter.

Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, has asked Gov. Jim Doyle and legislative leaders to hold an Extraordinary Session next week to address the issue of campaign-finance reform.

"The results of this poll should embarrass every elected official in Wisconsin," Carpenter said in a release. "Restoring public trust and confidence in our government should have been our first priority in this session."