Voters Believe Romney Would Favor the Rich At Expense of Middle Class

MEMORANDUM
to: Interested Parties
from: Jefrey Pollock & Nick Gourevitch, Global Strategy Group | Geoff Garin, Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group
re: Priorities USA Action Polling Memo
date: September 20, 2012

Voters Believe Romney Would Favor the Rich At Expense of Middle Class
Both internal & public polls agree that Romney is out of touch with the middle class

Even before the release this week of Mitt Romney’s comments dismissing 47% of Americans as dependent and lacking in personal responsibility, voters already understood that Romney is badly out of touch with the reality of average people’s lives and that he can’t be trusted to look out for the interests of middle class Americans who work hard and play by the rules.  Recent polling conducted just this week by Global Strategy Group and Garin-Hart-Yang Research group on behalf of Priorities USA Action in the battleground states of Ohio and Iowa find that:

• Voters believe that President Obama is – by far – the candidate who will protect the middle class.  In both Ohio and Iowa, President Obama leads by significant double-digit margins as being the candidate who will do best “standing up for the interests of the middle class” and “holding down taxes on the middle class.”  In addition, a recent CNN poll reinforced this finding – showing Obama with a 20-point lead nationally (57% to 37%) on being the candidate “in touch with the problems facing middle class Americans today.”  Data from Priorities USA Action polling is below:

• These perceptions are not only driven by attitudes that President Obama is the best for the middle class, but also that Mitt Romney’s economic policies will make things worse for the middle class.  A majority of voters in our polling in Ohio and Iowa say that Romney’s “economic policies would favor the wealthy and help the rich get richer” (57% say this is true in Ohio and 62% in Iowa) and that Romney’s “economic policies would put an even bigger burden on the middle class and working families” (52% true in Ohio and 52% in Iowa).

• Additionally, by a 15-point margin in both Ohio and Iowa, voters think that Romney’s “economic policies would make things worse for people like you” (45% say that in both states vs. just 30% who say Romney would make things better).  That’s similar to the finding in a recent national survey by the CBS & the New York Times, where 53% of voters say that Romney’s policies would “favor the rich” while 33% say they would “treat all groups equally.”

Methodological information on the polls cited in this memo is as follows:

• The Priorities USA Action Ohio poll was conducted September 13-17, 2012 among 803 likely general election voters.  The margin of error on the poll is +/- 3.5%.
• The Priorities USA Action Iowa poll was conducted September 13-16, 2012 among 600 likely general election voters.  The margin of error on the poll is +/- 4.0%.
• The following are links to the public polling cited in this memo for CNN (http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2012/images/09/10/rel10a.pdf) and NYT/CBS (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/09/14/us/politics/2012-presidential-election-poll.html?ref=politics)