Partial Finding from Earmark Survey

As readers of the Cheese Factories blog are aware, we are running a survey on earmarks.  The survey will continue to run for a couple of more weeks: take it here and please pass it on via email, and social media sites like twitter and Facebook.

One interesting finding so far (see table below) is that 30% of our respondents report being a little or much more likely to vote for a member of Congress who pursues earmarks compared to 18% who are a little or much less likely to vote for a member who pursues earmarks.  In our sample 53% of respondents report that the pursuit of earmarks would not influence their vote choice.

In August the Pew Research Center reported that 53% of Americans were more likely to vote for a member of Congress with a record of bringing government projects to the district; 12% were less likely to vote for such a member and 33% said it made no difference.

While our findings and the Pew findings are not directly comparable--e.g. different question wording and Pew's superior sample (larger and random)--both studies suggest that pursuing earmarks is, on average, a net plus for members of Congress at best, and makes no difference at worst.


Note: This is a non-scientific, non-random sample; any results reported should be considered as suggestive of public opinion but not representative of public opinion. Findings are based on an N=120.