Raleigh, N.C. – Eighty-three percent of voters oppose the use of taxpayer dollars to fund politician’s campaigns, according to a new poll released today by the Civitas Institute. The poll also found a majority of voters want judicial candidates indentified by party affiliation.
Eighty-three percent of voters said they oppose a proposal to use taxpayer dollars to fund politician’s campaigns. Fourteen percent said they support it, and 3 percent said they do not know.
This is a 7 percent increase since a July 2010 Civitas poll when voters opposed taxpayer funded campaigns by a 76 percent-16 percent margin. Almost equal percentages of Republicans (89 percent-8 percent) and Democratic voters (81 percent-18 percent) oppose the proposal. Unaffiliated voters also are in opposition to using taxpayer dollars for this purpose by an 80 percent-15 percent margin.
“Using taxpayer money to support certain politicians’ campaigns is very unpopular,” said Civitas Institute President Francis De Luca. “Legislators looking to cut the budget should look at these pots of money as low hanging fruit.”
Sixty-eight percent of voters said they would support a proposal to identify judicial candidates by party affiliation on the election ballot. Twenty-six percent said they oppose it, and 6 percent said they do not know. There is bipartisan support for this proposal; in addition, 54 percent of Republicans, 45 percent of unaffiliated voters, and 44 percent of Democrats said they strongly support identifying judicial candidates by party.
“As judicial candidates have become the main recipient of taxpayer financed campaign funds, the ability of voters to identify particular candidates has plummeted along with the participation of voters in judicial elections,” added De Luca.
The Civitas Poll is the only monthly live-caller poll of critical issues facing North Carolina. For more information on Civitas polling see http://www.nccivitas.org/category/poll/.
Full text of questions:
“Would you support or oppose a proposal using taxpayer dollars to fund politician’s campaigns?”
Total Support – 14%
Total Oppose – 83%
Strongly Support – 8%
Somewhat Support – 7%
Somewhat Oppose – 10%
Strongly Oppose – 74%
Do Not Know – 3%
“Would you support or oppose a proposal identifying judicial candidates by party on the election ballot?
Total Support – 68%
Total Oppose – 26%
Strongly Support – 47%
Somewhat Support – 21%
Somewhat Oppose – 10%
Strongly Oppose – 16%
Do Not Know – 6%
Click here for full results and crosstabs.
This poll of 600 registered general election voters in North Carolina was conducted January 19-20 by National Research, Inc. of Holmdel, NJ. All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of registered voters in North Carolina. For purposes of this study, voters interviewed had to have voted in two of the past four general elections or were newly registered to vote since 2008.
The confidence interval associated with a sample of this size is such that: 95 percent of the time, results from 600 interviews (registered voters) will be within +-4% of the “True Values.” True Values refer to the results obtained if it were possible to interview every person in North Carolina who had voted in two of the past four general elections or were newly registered to vote since 2008.
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