The non-partisan Mark Christopher Scheffler Foundation for a Sustainable Wisconsin recently conducted a non-scientific poll on the issue of sustainability in this year’s race for Wisconsin Governor. Respondents were asked five questions on sustainability, and produced some surprising poll results. The surprise? Sustainability is an important issue, and independent non-partisan candidates are preferred over partisan candidates. Full results and background offered below the wavy (and completely sustainable) page break...
82.7% of respondents indicated that they would welcome a candidate for Wisconsin Governor running on a platform of sustainability, with 12.4% unsure and only 4.9% indicating that it wasn’t an important issue to them.
81.0% of respondents would support a qualified, independent, non-party-affiliated candidate, while 7.6% would only support a Republican candidate and 11.4% would only support a Democratic candidate.
58.9% indicated that business/entrepreneurial experience would be most attractive to them, followed by experience in public education (21.5%). Only 8.2% indicated that prior political experience was important.
54.4% indicated that it would be important for the candidate to demonstrate leadership and vision, 24.1% required a commitment first to Wisconsin voters, and 15.2% required the candidate to be knowledgeable about Wisconsin issues. And finally…
45.1% cited economic and business sustainability as the single most important issue to them, while 15.9% chose environmental stewardship, 13.4% desired sustainable political reform, and 12.2% sought advanced transportation solutions.
“This poll yielded some fascinating results, indicating a strong desire for the issue of sustainability to become a priority in this year’s election,” said Mark Christopher Scheffler, Founder of The Foundation for a Sustainable Wisconsin. “Over 80% of respondents indicated that a platform of sustainability was not only important to them, but that independent, non-partisan candidates were best qualified to address this important issue. That’s remarkable!” said Scheffler.
“It was also interesting to note that economic sustainability was at the top of our respondents’ list of important issues and that a candidate’s experience in this area would also be beneficial.” he continued. “But the real surprise of the poll was that only 8% of respondents said that political experience was important. This finding indicates that Wisconsinites are expressing less confidence in our politicians in general, and that non-partisan independent candidates for Governor may be more attractive.”
This poll was distributed throughout a widely diverse network of 450 LinkedIn members, 520 Facebook users and 55 Foundation for a Sustainable Wisconsin members. The poll had 81 respondents for an 8% participation rate.
Scheffler concluded, “While this poll was performed on a relatively small yet widely diverse pool of possible respondents, we believe that the results would be statistically consistent if performed on a larger scale.”
Polling data was collected at 9:20 AM on April 7, 2014. Poll will remain active indefinitely at http://www.sustainwis.org/...