Voters are disgusted with state government and politicians in general, according to a new poll released Wednesday to The Times-Tribune.
More voters believe Pennsylvania is on the wrong track than in any public poll released in more than two decades, according to the new Franklin & Marshall College poll. Voters blame the state General Assembly more than Gov. Tom Wolf, but solid majorities disapprove of Wolf’s and the assembly’s job performance and believe government and politicians are the biggest problem facing the state, the poll found.
G. Terry Madonna, Ph.D., the poll’s director, said the findings represent voters’ distaste for what they perceive as widespread dysfunction at all levels of state government.
“The legislature, the governor over the budget, pensions and all of that,” Madonna said of voters’ discord. “The other thing it has to do with is the constant thing about (state Attorney General) Kathleen Kane, about the courts (the Supreme Court porn email scandal), a colliding, if you will, of all of these things ... It involves every branch of state government. All three branches.”
The disgust has less to do with “a shaky economy” than the state government’s performance, he said.
“I think what you’re looking at here is the pieces of a puzzle coming together. It’s not likely one thing,” Madonna said.
The poll of 732 registered voters was conducted between Jan. 18 and Sunday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.
Wolf and the Republican-controlled assembly have failed to come up with a 2015-16 budget in more than 10 months after the governor announced his first budget proposal. The governor is scheduled to produce his second budget in 12 days.
Kane faces criminal charges for leaking secret grand jury information and lying about it to a new grand jury investigating the leak. One Supreme Court justice, Seamus McCaffery, has resigned, another, Michael Eakin, is suspended and other justices face scrutiny over receiving and/or sending pornographic emails.
The poll did not ask questions specifically about Kane or the justices, but Madonna said his experience as an observer of state politics led him to conclude both are caught up in voter discontent.
The poll found:
• Two-thirds of voters (67 percent) believe things in the state are off on the wrong track with only about one in five voters (21 percent) thinking things are headed in the right direction. Wrong track responses were up 5 percentage points since an October Franklin & Marshall poll and the percentage is the highest in 21 years of polling by Dr. Madonna both at F&M and Millersville University. The last time more voters thought things were headed in the right direction than off on the wrong track was in a March 2009 poll, two months after President Barack Obama took office.
• Almost two in five voters (38 percent) think government and politicians are the most important problem facing Pennsylvania. That’s more than twice as high a percentage as those who named education (18 percent), more than three times as many who named unemployment, personal finances or the economy (12 percent) and more than four times as many who named taxes (9 percent) the biggest problem.
• More than four in five (82 percent) think state government needs reforming with almost two-thirds (64 percent) believing that very strongly.
More than a third (36 percent) believe the legislature is most in need of reform with one in 16 (6 percent) naming the governor’s office and one in 25 (4 percent) naming the judicial branch. Almost one in 10 voters (9 percent) said all of state government needs reform.
• More than half (52 percent) believe the assembly is most to blame for the late budget with almost a third (32 percent) blaming Wolf. More trust Wolf than the assembly, but not by much (42 to 39 percent).
• Wolf’s job approval rating, never great, is now in territory that former Gov. Tom Corbett inhabited. Only a third of voters (33 percent) think the governor is doing a good (28 percent) or excellent (5 percent) job with more than three in five (62 percent) believing he’s doing a fair (36 percent) or poor (26 percent) job.
The last F&M poll that asked about Corbett — in October 2014 just before Wolf’s election — had Corbett at 31 percent good or excellent and 50 percent fair or poor.
•The assembly fared far worse, even when compared to during Corbett’s tenure. Only about one in six voters (15 percent) believe the assembly is doing an excellent (1 percent) or good (14 percent) job while four in five (80 percent) believe it’s doing a fair (41 percent) and poor (39 percent) job. That’s actually slightly better than August 2013, the last time F&M asked the question, still during Corbett’s tenure (11 percent good or excellent versus 83 percent fair or poor).