Poll finds GOP legislature blamed for shutdown
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 11:56 am
- 5 Comments
A poll found that twice as many Minnesotans blame Republican lawmakers for the state shutdown, rather than DFL Gov. Mark Dayton.
The newly released poll was sponsored by MinnPost. It included interviews with 589 people about the shutdown that closed Minnesota government for 20 days at the start of July.
Who do you think is most responsible for the budget crisis and shutdown?
| Gov. Mark Dayton | 21% |
| Republicans in the legislature | 42% |
| Both | 22% |
| No opinion | 15% |
The poll had a margin of error of 4.8 percent.
The poll also found that 66 percent of Minnesotans wanted a combination of spending cut and tax increases, while 23 percent wanted spending cuts only. That finding echoes earlier polls.
In a Facebook post this weekend, Gov. Mark Dayton said he realized during negotiations that “nothing would budge [Republicans] from their anti-tax convictions.”
By all accounts, it was a difficult atmosphere in which to find common ground. Republican leadership even had trouble wrangling votes from freshman to support the final agreement to end the shutdown, which they thought still spent too much, according to a report in Politics in Minnesota.
MinnPost offers an in-depth analysis by University of Minnesota Political Science Professor Larry Jacobs of how the anti-GOP feeling could impact the 2012 elections. Jacobs said the cuts-only approach by Republican leadership appealed to the enthusiastic Republican base, but could hurt their electoral chances with moderates.
Follow Jon Collins on Twitter5 Comments
Comment posted July 28, 2011 @ 12:26 pm
The problem I have with these survey’s is the way they ask questions. It’s not do you think it’s a group vs a group but a group vs a person. I think it would be much different if they had asked if they thought it was democrat vs repulican. I know Dayton is a democrat but nobody wants to blame a person. People like to have labels, Once you put a name on it, it becomes more personable.
Comment posted July 29, 2011 @ 2:39 pm
Let’s just hope people remember what these Repug clowns did, especially when it’s time to vote in November of 2012. I know I’M not forgetting!
Comment posted July 29, 2011 @ 4:33 pm
Republicans began their PR campaign with that despicable press conference in which their co-chairs Brodkorb and Sutton called Dayton mentally ill and tipped their hand that they figured their party could shut the state down and cynically bamboozle the public into blaming Dayton .How’s that working out for ya ,guys?
Comment posted July 30, 2011 @ 3:48 pm
The truth bubbles to the top, no matter how hard one tries to conceal it. The budget shutdown will be the GOP’s “telltale heart” in 2012.
Comment posted August 1, 2011 @ 7:05 am
The worst thing about the shutdown was that it didn’t last longer. It was probably the most effective spending cut that we’ll see in years. Politicians have no guts when it comes to doing the hard job of cutting spending (they kowtow to the press and let them get away with calling a spending freeze – a spending CUT, AKA baseline budgeting).
I still like the idea of taxing trust fund balances. That’s where the real money is…but we don’t want to tax ALL the rich – just the ones that MAKE money – not the ones that HAVE money.
But here’s a side note for you: not everyone was bothered by the shutdown. It just shows that we have incompetent politicians in charge…DUH!!
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
