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To: Interested Parties

From: Celinda Lake, David Mermin, & Jeff Klinger, Lake Research

Partners

David Donnelly, Public Campaign Action Fund

Date: December 20, 2012

Re: Statewide polling in New York shows deep and broad

support for comprehensive campaign finance reform

Support for comprehensive campaign finance reform including public

funding of state campaigns in New York is as strong as we have seen in

any state since we started polling on this issue nearly two decades

ago. Over that time, we have polled in at least two dozen states and

conducted national survey work on this issue regularly, often in the

wake of national scandals like Enron and the Abramoff scandals. In

addition, the intensity of support for reform is incredibly high in New

York State, making this a particularly important issue for state

policymakers to address.

Regardless of party, New Yorkers are ready to embrace serious

changes to campaign finance laws and back comprehensive reform

clude public financing. Opposition

messaging, including arguments that the state has better priorities for

its tax dollars, fails to undercut the significant advantage reformers

have over defenders of the status quo. Lastly, there is little difference

between voter attitudes among those represented by Democrats or

Republicans in the State Senate.

KEY FINDINGS

o NewYorkersshowwide,broad,anddeepsupportforacomprehensivepackageofreforms.By79to8percent,voters

backaproposalthatprovidesqualifiedcandidatesalimited

Celinda Lake

President

Alysia Snell

Partner

Michael Perry

Partner

David Mermin

Partner

Robert G. Meadow,

Ph.D.

Partner

Daniel R. Gotoff

Partner

Joshua E. Ulibarri

Partner

Tresa Undem

Partner

Rick A. Johnson

Sr. Vice President

Robert X. Hillman

Chief Operating

Officer

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amountofpublicmatchingfundsiftheyagreetoraisesmalldonationsonly

fromvotersinthedistrictwheretheyarerunningforoffice,aswellassetting

lowercontributionlimits,disclosureofspendingbyoutsidegroups,and

strictenforcementofallcampaignfinancelaws.Sixty-threepercentofvoters

saytheystronglysupportthisproposal,whilejustfourpercentstrongly

opposeit.

Thesupportcutsacrossallpartisanlines,with83percentofDemocrats,79

percentofindependents,and74percentofRepublicanssupportingthe

measure.VoterswhowillberepresentedbyRepublicansintheStateSenate

inJanuarybacktheproposal80percenttotenpercent,whilethosein

Democratic-wonSenatedistrictssupportit77percenttosixpercent.When

thisproposalispresen,thesupportmaintains

super-majorityconsensusbackingat79to11percentwith53percentsaying

theystronglysupportittojustfivepercentstronglyopposingit.Eighty-one

percentofthoseinRepublican-heldSenatedistrictssupportit.

o Votersarereadyformajorchangesmoresothanmodestones.When

givenachoicebetweenoverhaulingcampaignfinancelaws,makingmodest

changes,orleavingcampaignfinancelawsalone,58percentsupport

.Twenty-ninepercentsupportmodest

changeswithjustninepercentsayingtheywanttoleavethelawsastheyare.

InRepublican-helddistricts,votersbackanoverhaulovermodestchangesby

59to27percent.InDemocratic-wondistricts,supportforanoverhaulis57

to31percentovermodestchanges.

Aquestionthatincludedmoredetailsabouteachoftheproposalssharedby

politicalleadersinthestatepittingcomprehensivereformincludingpublic

matchingfundsversuscontributionlimitsanddisclosurefoundthatthe

majoritysupportsubstantialchanges,52percentto30percent,withjust11

percentwantingtoleavecampaignfinancelawsalone.Onceagain,votersin

Republican-wondistrictsscoredslightlyhigher54percentto51percent

forlargerchanges.

o By75to19percentand77to15percent,twoargumentsmadebysupportersofreformbeat

oppositionmessaginghandsdown,evenwhentheopposingmessage

centeredontheuseoftaxdollarsinpayingforcampaigns.Whenconfronted

withstatementsthatpublicmatchingfundswouldtakemoneyawayfrom

jobsandeducationandwouldwastetaxdollarsonpoliticalcampaigns,

voterssidewithsupporterswhoarguethatreformwouldcuttheinfluenceof

specialinterestmoneyandgivevotersavoiceinAlbany.

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Theargumentsmadeinoppositionmirrorwhatsomepoliticalleadershave

statedinthepastseveralweeks,includingproposingalternativemodest

reformstolimitcontributionsandprovideformoredisclosureofcampaign

spending.

NotonlyaretheseviewsclearlyoutofstepwithwhatNewYorkersbelieve,

theyareoutofstepwithwhatvotersinRepublican-heldSenatedistricts

believe.Inthesedistricts,three-quartersofallvoterssidewithreformers

whenargumentsonbothsidesaremadehead-to-head.Thefindings

underscorehowrobustsupportisforcomprehensivereformasopposedto

morelimitedpolicies.

o Lastly,voterattitudesofthejobperformanceofkeyplayersinAlbanyprovideanimportantbackdroptothefightovercampaignfinance

reformthatwillemergenextyear.GovernorCuomocontinuestoridea

waveofpopularity,with61percentofvotersviewinghisperformanceinofficeexcellentorgood,asopposedtojust34percentwhosaidheisdoinga

fairorpoorjob.

TheDemocratsintheAssemblyandSenatecomeinwithrelativelynegative

jobperformancenumbers(34to56percentintheAssemblyand36to57

percentintheSenate),whilevotersgiveRepublicanstatelawmakers

abysmalratingsat14percentexcellent/goodto77percentfair/poorinthe

Assemblyand16percentexcellent/goodto74percentfair/poorinthe

Senate.

Thepower-sharingarrangementbetweenRepublicansandsomeDemocrats

improveinAlbany,with27percentsayingmoreworkwillgetdone,34

percentsayingthattherewillbemoregridlock,and31percentsayingit

torsinboth

partiescouldseetheirpublicstandingimprovebypassingcomprehensive

reform.

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