Senate GOP leaders told rank-and-file Members on Tuesday that Democrats gained ground in a new poll measuring voters’ political perceptions, and instructed Republican Senators to focus their talking points on four key issues in the next month.

The poll maintains Republicans still hold a “better brand image” than Democrats, but pointed out that the GOP’s lead has slipped slightly in the past month.

Senate GOP Conference Chairman Rick Santorum (Pa.) attributed the slippage to a confluence of factors ranging from concerns about the stagnant economy and the war with Iraq to misdirecting their energies to endeavors that do not resonate beyond the nation’s capital.

“Our message has not been as favorably received as in previous months, largely because we have become bogged down in day-to-day inside-the-Beltway issues,” Santorum wrote in a July 28 memo to fellow GOP leaders. “We have to keep our eyes on the broader strategic messages.”

Santorum delivered this same message to Republican Senators on Tuesday during the GOP Conference’s weekly strategy meeting. In particular, he believes Republicans need to sharpen their message on the economy when they return home next week.

“People care about jobs and the economy, and we need to keep talking about jobs,” Santorum wrote in the memo.

To help refocus Republicans on a handful of core issues deemed vital to achieve success in the 2004 elections, GOP leaders have assigned a different theme to each week in August. The proposed outline is top heavy on domestic priorities, but it is anchored by what Republicans say are their bread-and-butter issues: homeland security and national defense.

In the first week of the August recess, Republican Senators are encouraged to talk to their constituents about Medicare, followed by jobs and the economy in the second week, homeland security and national defense in the third week and ending the month-long recess by championing the GOP’s education goals.

“It is more important than ever that Senate Republicans stay disciplined on these four key issues,” Santorum wrote in the memo.

The Pennsylvania Republican said in an interview Tuesday that the White House has agreed to help Senators deliver these GOP messages to their constituents by deploying top administration officials to venues across the country to talk about issues such as health care.

Democrats are employing a similar strategy of highlighting issues they deem politically important as Senators return home to their respective states for the August recess.

“We are going to be doing exactly the same thing” as the Republicans, Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said in an interview. “In every one of our states we have Senators who are going to be speaking directly to these issues.”

“I will be doing it on the cost of health care in particular, and other Senators are going to focus on specific issues as well,” added Daschle, who might face a difficult re-election contest next year.

Santorum assured his colleagues that “voters have not lost confidence in Senate Republicans or the President, but they are looking for positive results.”

His blunt assessment is based upon findings from a July 23-24 poll of 1,000 voters conducted by GOP pollster David Winston. The poll notes that “voters, especially women, need assurance that this economy is going to get better.

“People are measuring how well the economy is doing by job creation, so we need to focus our economic message on the outcome of job creation and not the process of tax cuts,” Santorum wrote in the memo.

To reassure constituents the economy is heading for an upswing, Republicans need to highlight the fact that tax-refund checks will start arriving in the mail soon — “the first step in a variety of items in the job creation package that was recently passed.”

He also advised his colleagues not to get bogged down in the “minutia of the approps process,” suggesting that “appropriations season is a notoriously difficult time for the majority party” to get out its message.

In September, Republicans need to hone a “macro message” that includes continuing to label Democrats as obstructionists, especially on the issues of judges in place of appropriations rhetoric, the Conference chairman advised.

Among it findings, the poll indicated that Senate Republicans maintain a 53 percent favorable to 38 percent unfavorable margin compared to Democrats’ 50 percent favorable to 39 percent unfavorable rating.

The previous Winston poll had Senate Republicans at a 52 percent favorable to 35 percent unfavorable showing, compared to the Democrats’ 47 percent favorable to 41 percent unfavorable margin.

“We are still doing fine, but we got to stay on message and we got to talk about what people are concerned about,” Santorum said in the interview.