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,anddeepsupportfora
comprehensivepackageofreforms.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



amountofpublicmatchingfundsiftheyagreetoraisesmalldonationsonly
fromvotersinthedistrictwheretheyarerunningforoffice,aswellassetting
lowercontributionlimits,disclosureofspendingbyoutsidegroups,and
strictenforcementofallcampaignfinancelaws.Sixty-threepercentofvoters
saytheystronglysupportthisproposal,whilejustfourpercentstrongly
opposeit.

Thesupportcutsacrossallpartisanlines,with83percentofDemocrats,79
percentofindependents,and74percentofRepublicanssupportingthe
measure.VoterswhowillberepresentedbyRepublicansintheStateSenate
inJanuarybacktheproposal80percenttotenpercent,whilethosein
Democratic-wonSenatedistrictssupportit77percenttosixpercent.When
thisproposalispresenteu as uoveinoi Cuomos,thesupportmaintains
super-majorityconsensusbackingat79to11percentwith53percentsaying
theystronglysupportittojustfivepercentstronglyopposingit.Eighty-one
percentofthoseinRepublican-heldSenatedistrictssupportit.

o Votersarereadyformajorchangesmoresothanmodestones.When
givenachoicebetweenoverhaulingcampaignfinancelaws,makingmodest
changes,orleavingcampaignfinancelawsalone,58percentsupport
oveihauling the states election laws.Twenty-ninepercentsupportmodest
changeswithjustninepercentsayingtheywanttoleavethelawsastheyare.
InRepublican-helddistricts,votersbackanoverhaulovermodestchangesby
59to27percent.InDemocratic-wondistricts,supportforanoverhaulis57
to31percentovermodestchanges.

Aquestionthatincludedmoredetailsabouteachoftheproposalssharedby
politicalleadersinthestatepittingcomprehensivereformincludingpublic
matchingfundsversuscontributionlimitsanddisclosurefoundthatthe
majoritysupportsubstantialchanges,52percentto30percent,withjust11
percentwantingtoleavecampaignfinancelawsalone.Onceagain,votersin
Republican-wondistrictsscoredslightlyhigher54percentto51percent
forlargerchanges.

o Voterx xounJly reject opponentx urgumentx ugulnxt comprehenxlve
reform unJ xtrongly embruce xupporterx vlewxBy75to19percentand
77to15percent,twoargumentsmadebysupportersofreformbeat
oppositionmessaginghandsdown,evenwhentheopposingmessage
centeredontheuseoftaxdollarsinpayingforcampaigns.Whenconfronted
withstatementsthatpublicmatchingfundswouldtakemoneyawayfrom
jobsandeducationandwouldwastetaxdollarsonpoliticalcampaigns,
voterssidewithsupporterswhoarguethatreformwouldcuttheinfluenceof
specialinterestmoneyandgivevotersavoiceinAlbany.

Theargumentsmadeinoppositionmirrorwhatsomepoliticalleadershave
statedinthepastseveralweeks,includingproposingalternativemodest
reformstolimitcontributionsandprovideformoredisclosureofcampaign
spending.

NotonlyaretheseviewsclearlyoutofstepwithwhatNewYorkersbelieve,
theyareoutofstepwithwhatvotersinRepublican-heldSenatedistricts
believe.Inthesedistricts,three-quartersofallvoterssidewithreformers
whenargumentsonbothsidesaremadehead-to-head.Thefindings
underscorehowrobustsupportisforcomprehensivereformasopposedto
morelimitedpolicies.

o Lastly,voterattitudesofthejobperformanceofkeyplayersinAlbany
provideanimportantbackdroptothefightovercampaignfinance
reformthatwillemergenextyear.GovernorCuomocontinuestoridea
waveofpopularity,with61percentofvotersviewinghisperformancein
officeexcellentorgood,asopposedtojust34percentwhosaidheisdoinga
fairorpoorjob.

TheDemocratsintheAssemblyandSenatecomeinwithrelativelynegative
jobperformancenumbers(34to56percentintheAssemblyand36to57
percentintheSenate),whilevotersgiveRepublicanstatelawmakers
abysmalratingsat14percentexcellent/goodto77percentfair/poorinthe
Assemblyand16percentexcellent/goodto74percentfair/poorinthe
Senate.

Thepower-sharingarrangementbetweenRepublicansandsomeDemocrats
in the Senate uoesnt seem to pioviue much public sentiment that things will
improveinAlbany,with27percentsayingmoreworkwillgetdone,34
percentsayingthattherewillbemoregridlock,and31percentsayingit
wont make a uiffeience uiven the finuings of this suivey legislatorsinboth
partiescouldseetheirpublicstandingimprovebypassingcomprehensive
reform.

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