Posted on 02/19/2011 8:49:22 AM PST by freespirited
A new poll shows that a small majority of Wisconsin residents disagree with Gov. Scott Walker’s plans to increase public employees’ share of their benefits and to strip the unions of much of their power.
But the poll also says that a stronger majority of respondents think that Democratic state senators, who fled the Capitol on Thursday to avoid taking a vote on the Walker’s legislation, should return to Madison.
The poll was conducted and paid for We Ask America of Springfield, Ill. Gregg Durham, chief operating officer of the polling group, said that his organization is largely owned by the Illinois Manufacturers' Association, but the polling work of We Ask America is done separately from the association.
The poll was conducted on Thursday by sampling 2,397 Wisconsin residents. The margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points....
The poll asked respondents if they approve or disapprove of Walker’s plans. According to the poll, 43.05% approved and 51.9% disapproved. 5.05% were uncertain. Females and union households registered higher disapproval.
On whether the Democratic senators should return to Madison, 55.99% said yes, 36.38% said no and 7.63% were not sure. There was virtually no difference of opinion based on gender...
“Clearly, they may be against part of Walker’s plans, but they felt that senators should come back too,” Durham said. “I think that’s the sign of a pretty mature electorate, that they can separate those two issues.”
“It’s pretty clear that people view Wisconsin as a burgeoning swing state,” Durham said. “But clearly, too, there is a history of the state of rewarding people who take stances that aren’t safe, so it makes it an intersting place for people to investigate.”
(Excerpt) Read more at jsonline.com ...
Likely polled the usual suspects. Leaders don’t need polls, they lead.
Pray for America
If any Freepers from out-state have a few minutes on their hands today, perhaps they can read the up to date stories from our major newspaper and then post supporting notes in the “comments” section of each story. The unions seem to have their posters in there 24/7.
Here is a link to the front page of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
The WSJ has a poll on the same thing and the overwhelming response is for no collective bargaining rights for government workers.
Polls don’t change the financial situation. If they’re broke, they’re broke.
Remember when the left got all worked up when they accused ITT of supporting a coup in Chile back in the 70’s? Google does it and everything is aaaaaaright!!
According to the article, they polled "residents", which means any unemployed slacker with excess time on his hands to answer a dumb push poll.
If they'd polled likely voters, tax payers, home owners, or business owners, they would have gotten an entirely different result.
The only “poll” that counts was taken in November 2010.
We Won!
Walker’s position prevails!
Excellent point. Although I think you are too generous estimating that 10-20% has a grasp on what the proposal actually says. Prolly more like 3%.
The US state department did it THROUGH Google, much like Obama’s Organizing for America is suborning the illegal strike in Wisconsin and other states, now as well.
I truly think that Obama, as chief law enforcement officer in the country could be impeached for suborning the illegal strikes in Wisconsin and other states.
Really? Wasn’t this part of Walker’s election campaign platform?”
I thought it was the core of his campaign.
Absolutely.
But for the sake of argument, assume that the poll is correct.
If the Republicans capitulate, they would enjoy a short term boost in public opinion, but they would be forever hostage to the teacher unions, and they would get blamed for the budget deficit.
If they hold on, they would suffer a short term loss in public opinion, but they would pave the way for future government employee concessions, and they would get credit for balancing the budget. Additionally, standing down the unions would begin the process of breaking up the Democrat base.
There's no justification to fold, morally or politically.
Except the poll is of residents, not registered or likely voters so it's not really a sense of the "electorate" which are only those entitled to vote.
I'm not surprised WI woman are mushy on this. The protests are aimed at that demographic. They'll see the people in the streets and get swept away imagining it must be some horribly blood-curdling proposal like feeding live puppies into wood-chippers.
They'll ignore their own family is being harmed by the unreasonable financial demands of the public employee unions because that's too abstract.
They'll ignore their children being robbed of an education and abandoned for days because to their minds these "hardworking" (mostly female) AWOL teachers can't possibly be UNREASONABLE.
The poll is intended to harm Walker and embolden the union thugs. I'm surprised the gap isn't wider.
The more narrow gap tells me Walker isn't doing so badly and the union propaganda machine is meeting hard resistance.
Yes...we are.. just not quite in the way HE thinks.
I hope today's counter-protest (by people who have to WORK Mon-Fri) shows them a thing or two... I hope it is in the hundreds of thousands
Bump.
I do not understand why government worker need a union at all. Unions did a wonderful job of gaining labor rights in the late 1800’s early 1900’s. But those days are gone and hopefully never to return to the USA. Even so government has never been an abuser of labor, so why do government workers need a union? The only reason I can think of is to fleece taxpayers by electing tax and spend Democrats.
Gee was this poll conducted at the protest or what? ROFLOL The American taxpayer is broke. We see that government workers are mostly lover paid/under worked.With approximately 30% of the population unemployed/unemployed we don’t really give a cr@p that they are whinnng when most of us are worrying about how to keep the lights on/feed the family but these people want to take more from us?
ping
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