Poll Finds GOP Change Hasn’t Cheered Public : Survey: After 100 days of new Congress, voters are still pessimistic about nation’s course. But most think Republicans kept their campaign promises.

After 100 days of Republican counterrevolution on Capitol Hill, voters are just as disgruntled with the state of the nation as they were before the elections last November, according to a new poll released today by the Times Mirror Center for The People & The Press.

Three of five Americans interviewed last Thursday through Sunday said that they think the GOP has kept its campaign promises. More than half professed to be happy that Republicans control Congress after longtime Democratic domination. But fewer than one in four said that they are satisfied with the way things are going in the country. Six in 10 think the country is losing ground on its most serious problems.

These are roughly the same levels of discontent measured by Times Mirror surveys last spring and summer, when the resentment that produced last November’s historic upheaval was gaining force among the citizenry. Times Mirror Co. is the owner of the Los Angeles Times and other newspaper, broadcasting and publishing enterprises.

The persistence of the public’s gloomy outlook is particularly striking, contended Andrew Kohut, director of the Times Mirror poll, because a shift in power in Washington usually produces at least a temporary spurt of optimism. In January, 1993, two months after President Clinton’s election ended 12 years of Republican control of the White House, the number of Americans who said they were satisfied with the way things were going in the country increased to nearly four of 10 compared to fewer than three of 10 a year earlier.

This new evidence of voter frustration with the political system comes as United We Stand, America, Inc., the organization founded by Ross Perot, announced that its members were meeting around the country to consider the possibility of mounting another independent presidential campaign in 1996.

Rejecting claims by GOP leaders that another independent presidential candidacy would only ensure Clinton’s reelection, Russell Verney, executive director of United We Stand, contended that in 1996, independent-minded voters would not be swayed by what he described as “fear tactics.”

Still, the Times Mirror survey was not without some positive news for both the major parties. The percentage of Americans who believe that the Republican Party is best able to handle the nation’s problems climbed to 42%, the highest figure either party has received in the eight years the poll has been taking such measurements. On the other hand, five of 10 Americans think that Democrats care more about them than Republicans, compared with four of 10 who take the opposite view.

Also disquieting for the GOP was the finding that only one of five interviewed think they will be helped by legislation passed by the new Republican Congress, while more than one in three believe they will be harmed.

And just about as many voters disapprove of Republican policies as approve--43% to 44%. Most of the opposition comes from women, blacks and low-income citizens, while whites, men and the wealthy take the most positive view.

Most of those interviewed said that they believe both House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) have more influence in Washington than Clinton. The nationwide survey of 1,800 adults had a sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.