Flap’s Links and Comments for March 6th from 05:02 to 15:48

These are my links for March 6th from 05:02 to 15:48:

• Wisconsin Poll Watch: A WINNABLE FIGHT – Predictably the liberal media will make much of the new WPRI poll showing Governor Walker with a 43 percent approval rating.

  But there are some very interesting findings in the poll (which seems to over sample both Democrats and union households.

  The poll says voters oppose Walker's budget plan by a 46% to 51% margin. But: An overwhelmingly majority — 81% said that public employees should be required to contribute to their own pensions.
  When voters were asked to choose between keeping public employees wages and benefits the same but cutting the number of workers or making employees pay more for their pension and benefits to avoid layoffs…. voters by a margin of 83 percent to 12 percent chose having the employees pay more for their benefits.

  Right now this is the heart of the Walker budget pitch.

  And on the issue of collective bargain; another mixed message:

  When asked whether they favored "limiting" public employees ability to negotiate over non-wage issues: the poll splits 47% in favor, 50% opposed. (That is within the margin of error.)

  When that question is changed to whether employees should be "stripped of their rights to collective bargaining," along with other loaded language, support drops to 32%.

  So wording obviously matters. A lot

  ++++++++++

  Read it all….

  Agreed, that labor polling is very hard to construct without bias.

• The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute: HIGHLY POLARIZED WISCONSINITES SPLIT OVER WALKER PLAN – Wisconsinites are deeply divided over Gov. Scott Walker’s plans regarding public employee benefits, wages and unions, according to a Wisconsin Policy Research Institute poll showing 51 percent somewhat or strongly opposed and 46 percent somewhat or strongly in favor.

  While support for Walker in general has held fairly steady in comparison to last November, in the meantime, opposition to him has solidified and increased. A slight majority of the public disapproves of the actions taken by Senate Democrats to prevent passage of the budget repair bill and overwhelming numbers want public employees to contribute more to their pensions. The public has a favorable opinion of public employee unions, including teachers unions. Most want Walker to compromise with Democrats and union leaders.

  The poll of 603 Wisconsinites was conducted between Feb. 27 and March 1, the day of Walker’s budget address, and has a margin of error of 4 percent. The survey of randomly selected adults included cell phone-users and was directed by Ken Goldstein, a UW-Madison political science professor on leave who is also the co-founder and director of the Big Ten Battleground Poll. It conforms in full with the disclosure requirements of the American Association of Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) Code of Professional Ethics and Practice and the AAPOR Transparency Initiative.

  +++++++

  Read it all.

  Note the sampling and the wording of the poll questions

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