...a lot!!
Posted on 03/07/2011 8:26:42 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Maybe it’s a Midwestern thing. The polls in Wisconsin have consistently shown that voters want an end to the standoff in Madison over the budget-repair bill, and appear to be blaming Governor Scott Walker for the impasse. Almost two-thirds want Walker to negotiate with the Democrats who fled the state and hijacked the legislative process. On the other hand, Wisconsin voters want lower taxes and spending cuts rather than higher taxes and the current level of spending, too:
In the WPRI survey from mid-November, 45% of Wisconsinites viewed Walker favorably and 35% viewed him unfavorably.
Today, about the same share – 43% – view him favorably, but the share of people who view him unfavorably has jumped 18 points to 53%.
The poll also illustrates how feelings about Walker have intensified among both supporters and opponents. Even though Walker’s overall favorability has gone down slightly from 45% to 43%, the percentage of people who strongly support him – who view him “very favorably” – has gone up from 21% to 28%. The percentage of people who strongly oppose him – who view him “very unfavorably” – has more than doubled from 19% to 41%.
Walker has lost significant ground with independents in the state, as Rasmussen also indicated earlier in the week. A 57% majority disapproves of Walker’s performance, and 59% of independents have a negative view of the governor. However, 23% of independents said that the top priority of the state government should be to balance the budget, another 13% said holding the line on taxes and spending, and another 20% said economic improvement should be the highest priority, with only 5.8% saying negotiating/bargaining was the highest priority and 7.9% for protecting collective bargaining “rights.”
It seems that Wisconsin voters (especially independents) want government to focus on the right priorities, but not disagree too much over them. Walker gets the blame for drawing a line in the sand.
That said, the WPRI analysis shows that voters have not been sold on the budget-repair bill’s union reforms, either:
Walker has proposed limiting collective bargaining to wages. Exactly half of the respondents (50 percent) say that public employees are willing to compromise on pensions and benefits but limiting bargaining rights does nothing to balance the state’s budget situation and is really just an attempt to get rid of public employee unions. Forty-three percent say the proposed changes are a necessary reform because they will give local governments greater flexibility to control their budgets over several years.
There is real opposition to Governor Walker’s proposal to restrict the collective bargaining rights of workers, but the intensity depends on how the question is worded. When the issue is framed as limiting bargaining rights to help local governments, 47 percent are in favor and 50 percent are opposed. When the issue is framed as eliminating bargaining rights to ultimately dismantle public employee unions, then the public overwhelmingly disapproves, with 32 in favor and 58 percent opposed.
The problems with the WEA Trust have apparently not gotten as much attention as needed in the last couple of weeks. That may explain this finding as well:
In the most recent poll, almost six out of ten respondents (59 percent) had a somewhat or strongly favorable opinion of public employee unions. Thirty-four percent had a somewhat or strongly unfavorable opinion.
WPRI has the survey’s full crosstabs available. The sample seems a little off, with a D/R/I of 28.1/23.7/29.1, and 19% either confused about the three choices or refusing to answer. The exit polls from the Wisconsin Senate race in 2010 had a D/R/I of 37/36/28, which suggests that both Republicans and Democrats got undersampled, but Republicans significantly more. That wouldn’t be enough to overcome the difference in support for the unions or the demand that Walker negotiate with the fleebaggers to get them back to the state capital. Furthermore, this poll largely agrees with the Rasmussen poll and other surveys taken in Wisconsin.
Walker doesn’t seem inclined to talk while Democrats refuse to engage in the legislature. These kind of poll numbers might push Republicans in the Senate towards a settlement if they continue in this direction.
Update: Charlie Sykes thinks there is more good news in this poll than one might otherwise conclude. Be sure to read his analysis.
I like that. Man there are a bunch of girlie men on this site that wet themselves everytime they see a poll. Man up will ya.
Look at the assertions made and the questions asked:
"He's not winning the message battle at this point," said University of Wisconsin political scientist Ken Goldstein, who conducted the poll.
[Poll Question:] Do you favor or oppose a proposal to weaken the collective bargaining rights of state employees?
There's no countervailing equity in the question. What if they asked, Do you favor or oppose a proposal to weaken the collective bargaining rights of state employees even if it means your taxes will go up 30%?
Of course no one wants to see anyones "rights" weakened - until you apply the equation of context. They also don't ask the other side of the coin in the poll. What are the favorable/unfavorables for the fleebaggers?
All I see in these polls are people frustrated at the issue still hanging.
People want change as long as it does not affect their pocketbook and only affects YOUR pocketbook. Leave them alone but it is okay to screw your neighbor. That is the problem he has. They whine for change, but do not pay the price for the change.
I’d bet most of these polls are total and utter garbage contrived to get the desires result.
>If Walker compromises, Wisconsin will deserve what it gets.<
.
The union leaders don’t care if WI slips into the economic abyss as long as they survive.
What approach is that?
And they only had Walker at 45% in November...the election was in November and he won the election with over 50% of the vote...did around 7% of the voters change their minds a week after voting for him and almost two months before he was sworn in? Something wrong with this poll...
Choose your battles wisely. Don’t overreach.
“They need to get this resolved fast”
No need to resolve this fast...this will get resolved and the changes will show up well before the next election. Most of the voters will like what the changes will look like.
IF this poll is accurate, it shows me that the media has done their job and gotten to the squishy “moderates.” As you point out, the wording of poll questions determine the results.
Gov Walker knows what he is doing is right for the state and the people will realize it as well in the long run. Gov. Walker will stand tall because if he doesn’t he is done. All this effort, emotion, protesting and the whole thing will have been in vain. He is a smart man and I am confident he will stand his ground.
The 14 who ran and hid are shameful and if they were MY reps I would vote them out. They didn’t stay when the going got rough...they ran and hid and did absolutely NOTHING for those who voted them in. They abandonded their posts and they abandonded their voters. What a name they will have for themselves now.
This is after being as low as 33 percent. Stick to your guns, Walker, and the the voters will reward you.
Can you suggest anything else that would be better to spend that “political capital” on? They have been in office for around two months...and have the whole country talking about a problem that we have been warned about for years, but nobody was willing to take it head on.
...a lot!!
RINO thinkers like you have gotten states into these messes.
I hope Walker and the WI GOP hold strong on this, but wishy-washy “conservatives” like you don’t help the situation one bit.
And the dems running and hiding have given Walker (and the rest of us) the time to explain his position, and the people are starting to understand.
And with the extra time the dems have given us we just need to keep repeating his explanation until it soaks in.
If he fails and the loud left wins in Wisconsin, outside investment will fall to zero. Furthermore the productive and job creators left in the state will move for the exits. In all it will be an economic catastrophe.
I found this elsewhere on FR, but it was written for you;
“Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people. They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and change the future. This acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution”
Saul Alinsky
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