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TO: Interested Parties

FROM: Global Strategy Group


DATE: March 18, 2019
RE: POLL RESULTS: Voters in congressional battleground districts support clean elections legislation

Going into the midterms, political corruption was second only to health care as an important issue that voters wanted
Congress to address. Now, new polling suggests voters in key congressional battleground districts across the country
strongly support reform to limit the influence of money in politics. Voters support a “clean elections” plan that would
provide a limited, small dollar matching system for candidates to receive public funds in exchange for turning down big
campaign contributions.
Key findings from a recent survey of 1,029 likely 2020 voters in battleground districts conducted by Global Strategy
Group are as follows.

KEY FINDINGS:
• Political corruption is a top issue for voters. Polling in August showed that among voters overall political corruption
was the second most important issue for Congress to address and number one among independents.
• There is a strong support for reform proposals in battleground districts. Voters support increasing the
transparency of political contributions, including dark money contributions (88% support/12% oppose); lobbying
reform by expanding the conflict of interest laws for Congressmembers (88% support/12% oppose); automatic
voter registration and the protection of voting rights (85% support/15% oppose); and clean elections that provide
a matching system for candidates who reject large campaign contributions from wealthy donors and special
interest PACs (85% support/15% oppose).
• Support for clean elections is high, and candidates who support clean elections benefit with voters overall. More
than 8 in 10 voters support (43% strongly support) a clean elections plan that would provide a limited, small dollar
matching system for qualified candidates. In addition, 42% said they would be much more likely to support a
candidate who backs this plan (90% more likely overall).
• After respondents hear several negative attacks against the proposal, intensity of support is slightly weakened,
but broad support does not decrease. 81% of voters still support the clean elections plan with 36% strongly
supportive following hits that argue it is expensive and a waste of taxpayer dollars and claims that politicians will
be held less accountable for the use of these funds or that they will use these taxpayer dollars to fund negative ad
campaigns. After a battery of positive statements about the proposal, support returns to 85% overall.

ABOUT THIS RESEARCH


Global Strategy Group conducted an online survey of 1,029 likely 2020 voters in battleground districts from January 16 to January 24,
2019. Care has been taken to ensure the geographic and demographic divisions of the expected electorate ar e properly represented.
617 interviews of the total 1,029 interviews were of voters in the following Blue Dog districts: AZ-01, CA-05, CA-16, CA-46, FL-07, FL-
13, GA-02, GA-13, IL-03, IL-10, MN-07, NJ-02, NJ-05, NJ-11, NM-02, NY-11, NY-22, OR-05, TN-05, TX-15, TX-28, TX-34, UT-04, VA-07.
412 interviews of the total 1,029 interviews were of voters in the following districts that flipped from Republican to Democr at in the
2018 midterm election: AZ-02, CA-10, CA-21, CA-25, CA-39, CA-45, CA-48, CA-49, CO-06, FL-26, FL-27, GA-06, IA-01, IA-03, IL-06, IL-
14, KS-03, ME-02, MI-08, MI-11, MN-02, MN-03, NJ-03, NJ-07, NJ-11, NM-02, NY-11, NY-19, NY-22, OK-05, PA-05, PA-06, PA-07, PA-
17, SC-01, TX-07, TX-32, UT-04, VA-02, VA-07, VA-10, WA-08.

Global Strategy Group also conducted an online survey of 1,581 registered voters nationwide from August 14 to August 20, 2018. Care
has been taken to ensure the geographic and demographic divisions of registered voters are properly represented.

NEW YORK WASHINGTON,DC HARTFORD DENVER CHICAGO SEATTLE GLOBALSTRATEGYGROUP

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