MEMORANDUM

TO:                  Arizona Free Enterprise Club

FROM:             dave sackett

RE:                  key findings from a survey of voter attitudes in Arizona

                        regarding clean elections initiative

DATE:             June 7, 2016

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The Tarrance Group is pleased to present Arizona Free Enterprise Club with the key findings from a survey of voter attitudes in Arizona regarding the proposed Clean Elections ballot initiative. These key findings are based on telephone interviews with N=500 registered voters throughout Arizona. Responses to this survey were gathered June 4-6, 2016 and the margin of error associated with a sample of this type is + 4.5% in 95 out of 100 cases.

KEY FINDINGS

• Arizona voters are strongly opposed to the use of their tax dollars to fund candidates for political office.  Only 25% are in favor of their tax dollars “being used to fund candidates for political office.” Sixty-nine percent (69%) are opposed to such an action, and only 6% are unsure.  There is significant intensity to this opposition, with 48% indicating they “strongly oppose” their tax dollars being used in this fashion.

• More than two-thirds of both men and women voters, as well as voters of all ages, indicate they are opposed to their tax dollars being used to fund candidates for political office.   This is also the case for 65% or better of voters in every single region of the state.

• Only one in three Democrats – thirty-three percent (33%) – favor the use of their tax dollars to fund political candidates, while 58% of Democrats are opposed to this, as are 58% of self-identified liberals.  There are more than 60% of Democratic women and 18-54 year old Democrats that are opposed to having their tax dollars used to fund candidates for political office.

• Opposition to the use of tax dollars to fund political candidates rises to 69% among Independent voters, and opposition to having their tax dollars used to fund candidates for political office rises to seventy-two percent (72%) among Independent women.   Fully 79% of Republicans are also opposed to this use of taxpayer funds.

• The response to this inquiry is dramatically negative among minority voters, with 76% of African American voters and eighty-three percent (83%) of Hispanic/Latino voters indicating they are opposed to the use of their tax dollars to fund candidates for public office.  Among minority Democrats, fully 70% are opposed to the use of their tax dollars in this manner.

• Arizona voters also take great offense at the hypocrisy of an organization that would sponsor a ballot initiative to “require non-profit groups and organizations that support or oppose ballot initiatives to disclose their donors” but, at the same time, refuse to disclosure their own donors.

• Fully seventy-two percent (72%) of Arizona voters indicate that this would cause them to be less likely to support the initiative.  Feelings on this factor are also very intense, with 55% indicating that this information would cause them to be “strongly less likely” to support the ballot initiative.

• This sentiment exists throughout the electorate, with over 70% of both men and women and over 70% of voters of all ages indicating this would cause them to be less likely to support the ballot initiative.

• Fully eighty-eight percent (88%) of African American voters and seventy-seven percent (77%) of Hispanic/Latino voters indicate that this information would cause them to be less likely to support the ballot initiative

• Just as important, this hypocrisy impacts Arizona voters in the same way, regardless of their party registration or political affiliation.  Over seventy percent of both Republicans and Democrats, and 76%) of Independents, all indicate they would be less likely to support this ballot initiative based on this information.

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