Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
A Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research poll of "battleground" congressional districts for the Women's Voices, Women Vote Action Fund and Democracy Corps released on Thursday recommends that Democrats go on the offensive on "ObamaCare." Are you listening Reps. Barber and Sinema? New WVWVAF Poll: Affordable Care Act Remains Popular with Rising American Electorate:
Survey Shows Unparalleled Support for Women’s Economic Agenda
WASHINGTON, DC – December 12, 2013 – The Affordable Care Act remains incredibly popular with people of color, unmarried women and other members of the Rising American Electorate, and a plurality in Republican districts and a majority in Democratic districts still support implementing “Obamacare” over repealing it. Those are some of the key findings of a major new poll (PDF) sponsored by Women’s Voices Women Vote Action Fund and conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research for Democracy Corps.
“Despite all the noise over the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, our polling shows that it remains popular among African Americans, Latinos, unmarried women and other members of the Rising American Electorate,” said Page Gardner, founder and President of Women’s Voices Women Vote Action Fund. “They realize that the reform law will improve their lives and ensure that they have affordable and reliable health care. These often economically-vulnerable Americans make up nearly 54 percent of the voting-eligible population, and these are the voters who decide elections.”
Overall, while the Affordable Care Act is marginally less popular now than a month ago, 49 percent want to implement the law versus 44 percent who would repeal it, according to the survey of 1,250 likely 2014 voters in the most competitive Congressional seats across the country.
Support among the Rising American Electorate (RAE) remains high. RAE members favor implementing Obamacare (58 percent) versus repealing it (35 percent). And they believe Obamacare will make life better for them (46 percent) and not harder (35 percent.) Unmarried women agree, with 42 percent saying the law will make life better, versus 35 percent who think it will make things harder.
Messaging Matters
Voters still have many questions about the law, but strong arguments in favor of Obamacare win converts to the Affordable Care Act and the political candidates who support it. When likely voters learn how the law will protect them from insurance companies and improve women’s health, overall support shoots up. 63 percent of all respondents reacted positively when told that insurance companies can’t “raise your rates or drop you when you get sick.” And 60 percent reacted favorably when told, “Women can no longer be charged more than men. Having a baby is no longer considered a pre-existing condition.”
The poll also shows overwhelming support for the Women’s Economic Agenda—from the RAE, unmarried women and all voters. It’s clear that the Women’s Economic Agenda is not popular just with women. Supporters are driven by an agenda that addresses basic pocketbook realities: paycheck fairness, scholarships for working women, the cost of childcare, and the cost of living. 83 percent of unmarried women (Republicans and Democrats) supported paycheck fairness and 80 percent supported measures to protect pregnant women from being fired or demoted, and expanding access to affordable childcare for working women.
“Our new poll makes clear that the Rising American Electorate is crucial to electoral victories, and that unmarried women of both major political parties support the Women’s Economic Agenda. It’s not just good policy, it’s smart politics,” Gardner said.
Greg Sargent of the Washington Post reported on Thursday, Morning Plum: Top pollster advises Dems to go on offense on Obamacare:
The GOP narrative for 2014 rests on the idea that Dem lawmakers and candidates are scurrying away from Obama and his signature domestic achievement. The goal: To create an atmosphere of panic and chaos around Obamacare, to discourage enrollment in hopes of making the law fail and to bait Dems into abandoning it, boosting its unpopularity and making it more of an albatross.
But now top Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg – having just done extensive polling in 86 competitive House districts — is advising Dems they should go on offense over the Affordable Care Act. The key finding: Even though voters in the battlegrounds have extreme doubts about the law, they still prefer implementing it to the GOP stance of repeal. And after a month of crushingly awful press for Obamacare, opinions on this matter in the battlegrounds have barely budged since October.
Dem pollster Stan Greenberg will roll out the new polling on a conference call with reporters later this morning. The poll — sponsored by Women’s Voices Women Vote Action Fund and Democracy Corps – was conducted in 50 GOP-held districts and 36 Dem-held districts from December 3-8, right after the administration announced its fix to the website. The key findings:
* Offered a straight choice between “implementing and fixing” the health law and “repealing and replacing” it, voters in these 86 districts prefer “implementing and fixing” by five points, 49-44. That’s only a slight difference from October, when implement and fix led by seven, 51-44.
* Implement and fix is preferred, even though the poll also finds widespread skepticism remains about seeing the law’s benefits. Only 33 percent of these battleground voters say the law will make things better for them, versus 46 percent who say it will make things harder, leaving a sizable chunk uncertain.
Greenberg tells me that all of this indicates that skepticism of the law does not necessarily translate into support for the GOP repeal stance — or GOP gains – and so Dems should not let that skepticism divide them.
“For sure, the rollout mess hurt the president and shifted the focus away from the hated Republican Congress,” he says. “But in the battlegrounds, the voters are split down the middle. This is not a wedge issue. Voters still want to implement and fix. Democrats can, and should, engage on health care.”
Indeed, the poll finds that significant majorities of core Democratic groups that are growing as a share of the electorate remain behind the law — another reason not to let Republicans use it as a wedge:
* Among members of the Rising American Electorate (unmarried women, young voters, and minorities) in the 86 battleground districts, “implement and fix” holds a 23-point lead over “repeal and replace,” 58-35. Also, these groups are significantly more convinced than voters overall that the law will make things better rather than make things harder: They believe this by 46-35.
“Despite all the noise over implementation, our polling shows that it remains popular among members of the Rising American Electorate,” says Page Gardner, president of the Women’s Voices Women Vote Action Fund. “They realize that the law will improve their lives. These often economically vulnerable Americans make up nearly 54 percent of the voting age population, and politicians who ignore their issues do so at their peril.”
Stand up and fight for what is right! Knock off that namby-pamby hand wringing crap you guys did during the GOP government shutdown and hostage taking of the full faith and credit of the U.S. Americans love a fighter, even when they may disagree with you.
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