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Polling for SB5 Looks Grim for Kasich

By BRIAN PETERS on 11/03/2011 6:55 am / 1 comment

With election day already next Tuesday Nov. 8, it is not looking good for Gov. Kasich’s signature legislative achievement.

Issue 2, the controversial collective bargaining law, has sparked outrage across the country and it is showing in the latest polling.

The latest Quinnipiac University poll conducted October 25 shows a margin of 25 points in the polls in favor of repealing Senate Bill 5. The numbers were 57 to 32 which doesn’t bode well for the law. The poll in September was 51 percent for the repeal and 32 percent against. The margin of voters has increased by 13 percent since the last poll.

“With two weeks until election day, the opponents of SB5 have strong reason to be optimistic,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

“The opponents had seen their 24 point margin in July close over the summer and early autumn. As we enter the home stretch, however, they have once again taken a commanding lead. Except for Republicans, just about every demographic group favors repealing the law.”

Melissa Fazekas, spokeswoman for We Are Ohio, feels that voters are strongly against this legislation. “The latest results of the Quinnipiac Poll once again show that Ohioans fully understand the need to stop Senate Bill 5 by voting no on Issue 2.”

“The enthusiasm and motivation of our thousands of volunteers is at an all time high. Ohioans understand that Issue 2 is unfair and unsafe and bad for our local communities,” said Fazekas.

The bill, which would ban collective bargaining for teachers, firefighters and police officers, was put on the ballot for referendum after We Are Ohio obtained 1.3 million signatures on a petition.

Kasich has continued to campaign for the law, even praising it for helping to close the budget shortfall in Ohio, the worst the state has seen since the 1990s.

Kasich’s office has not made a public comment about the poll numbers released last week.

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Ohio Voters Deadlocked on Presidential and Senatorial Elections
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Kasich, Portman Address GOP in Tampa
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OU Gains New Trustees, Homecoming Route, and Cars During Summer Break
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About the author

Brian Peters is the State Editor for The New Political. Email him at bpeters @thenewpolitical.com.

1 Comments

Omar says:

09/13/2012 at 1:18 am

, how can anyone posblsiy muster any sympathy for the unions?I am awestruck at those who try to defend them. Tom has brought up some very good points in the last couple of weeks, and some of the responses defy all logic and rational ways of thinking. I have spent years trying to decode the thought process of the average union worker, and I think that I have put my finger on it.For the most part, your average union worker is not much different that anyone else. They have individual principles, beliefs, and standards. Many are pro life, pro 2nd ammendment, and all kinds of things that don’t fit into your typical democratic philosophy. The one thing that they all have in common is the fact that they belong to a union, and that trumps everything else. A person could make a pretty strong case that they have compromised some of their core beliefs for a better than average paying job and benefits. Once they make that leap, it becomes easy to justify a whole host of activities, that to your average person might seem unreasonable, and sometimes down right dirty.A good friend of mine comes to mind. He is a Viet Nam vet who has told me stories of how he was treated when he returned from the war. I could see the anger in his eyes when he would tell the story. This guy is as pro life and pro second ammendment as they come, but when it came time vote, he would crawl up on his stump and talk about how you have to vote for the Democrats, and he would go on and on about the union and how he had to protect his job. He endorsed candidates that were once the very same hippies that spit on him.I may never fully understand what goes on inside the minds of union workers, but I try. It would serve them well if they attempted to understand the rest of us, because the rest of us are pretty fed up with the pissing and moaning about their precious benefits while our own incomes have been drastically reduced. We are well aware that not all union members are criminals, bullies, or thugs, but when the rest of them sit by while they do these things in their name, the rest of us couldn’t care less about what happens to their golden goose.

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