Wisconsin poll: encouraging

Ok, Greenberg Quinlan Rosner is a Democratic firm, and they did the poll for the AFL-CIO, but still, they’re reputable and smart and their findings are a pleasant surprise:

  • 41% of Wisconsin voters approve of Gov. Scott Walker, and 51% disapprove, a gap of –10. Strongly approve less strongly disapprove is even worse for Walker, at –12.
  • Walker’s net favorable of –10 is exactly reversed for the legislature’s Dems, who are 10 points in the positive column. Unions are even better liked: 53% favorable, 31% unfavorable, for a net of +22. The Tea Party is in the red, though, at –8 (31% favorable/39% unfav).
  • Walker’s agenda: 43% approve, 52% disapprove, which nets to –8 (must be a rounding thing).
  • Protesters at the state capitol are even more popular than the unions, at a net of +30 (62% approve/31% disapprove). Public employees are at +43 (67%/24%).
  • If unions offer givebacks on pay and beenfits, 74% say their collective bargaining rights should be preserved vs. 21% who say no, a net of 53 in favor of collective bargaining.
  • Respondents lean center–right: just 15% call themselves liberal, vs. 38% moderate and 40% conservative.

From GQR’s summary:

Voters in Wisconsin strongly agree with the working families at the state capitol and oppose Governor Scott Walker’s anti-worker agenda. Moreover, since the protests began, Governor Walker has seen real erosion in his standing, with a majority expressing disapproval of his job performance and disagreement with his agenda. Strong majorities disagree with eliminating collective bargaining for public employees and believe that if workers agree to concessions on pensions and healthcare benefits that the Governor should drop his plan to eliminate collective bargaining.

2 Comments on “Wisconsin poll: encouraging

  1. Granted that Gov Walker’s standing is going down. It was inevitable, as the pig was going to call out the National Guard against protesters… as if Wisconsin National Guardspeople aren’t married or related to teachers, civil servants, etc. As if the Guardspeople don’t belong to unions or have no friends or family in unions. There’s a bit of the UPS strike debacle here – going after the delivery guys in the brown uniforms?… yeah, good luck with that. All that said, we are seeing economic terrorism of this kind going on in Indiana, Ohio, and Idaho – the trashing of collective bargaining seems to be big effort these days. And all of these governors, etc, can count on juicy corporate gigs or federal appointments in the event of a recall or defeat years hence.

  2. Another question – “Strong majorities disagree with eliminating collective bargaining for public employees and believe that if workers agree to concessions on pensions and healthcare benefits that the Governor should drop his plan to eliminate collective bargaining.”… well, one thing the union can do is demand the rescinding of the tax giveaways to business. That is, if the deficit is really such a big deal. (Which it isn’t.)

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