The Mother Jones Poll

There were 550 respondents to last week’s poll. Here’s what they had to say. Be sure to participate in our <a href="/news_wire/soapbox/">latest poll</a>. Also, check out the <a href="poll_archive.html">results</a> of our previous polls.

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1. What do you think is the best method to reform campaign financing?

19% Elimination of Political Action Committees (PACs)

18% Complete public financing

15% None. I don’t support campaign finance reform.

13% Free television time for candidates who are on the ballot in all 50 states.

11% Stricter contribution limits

11% Stricter spending caps

4% Electronic filing of contributions

9% No response

2. Which party do the following special interest groups/industries contribute more to: Republicans, Democrats, or equal amounts to both parties? (Figures are from the 1994 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics).

a. Defense sector — Democrats

b. American Institute of CPA’s — Equal

c. Energy/Natural Resources sector — Republican

d. National Rural Letter Carriers Association — Democrats

e. Ideological/single-issue PACs — Democrats

f. National Beer Wholesalers Association — Republicans

g. Philip Morris — Democrats
 

3. Help Dole go negative: Write a bumper sticker slogan for his campaign to use to attack Clinton (Best answer wins a MoJo Wire hat).

And our winners are…

“Chelsea: The Only Clinton America Trusts” (Phoebe VanScoy)

“Shifty Redneck or Embittered Veteran: The choice is clear” (Mike T.)

Congratulations!

 

4. Fill in the blanks below to fill in the following quotes:

a. George Bush hinted that Bill Clinton’s trip to Moscow as a student was somehow treasonous.

b. George Bush’s campaign ads said that Willie Horton’s parole and subsequent crimes, showed that Michael Dukakis was too easy on criminals while Governor.

c. Bob Dole said, “Who is this guy? What does he know about it? . . . His word’s no good,” about Bill Clinton, during a rally in New Jersey.

d. Bob Dole said, He’s “liberal, liberal, liberal.” about Bill Clinton.

e. Bob Dole said that Bill Clinton reminded him of his brother Kenny, “the great exaggerator,” who liked to say things that were “not quite accurate.”

f. Bill Clinton said it’s not Bob Dole’s age that concerned him, it’s the age of his ideas.

5. If the elections were held today, and all these candidates had an equal chance of winning, who would you vote for?

39% Harry Browne (Libertarian)

26% Ralph Nader (Green Party)

21.6% Bill Clinton (Democrat)

5% Bob Dole (Republican)

4% Ross Perot (Reform Party)

2% None

2% John Hagelin (Natural Law Party)

.4% Howard Phillips (U.S. Taxpayers Party)

0% Lyndon Larouche (Democrat)

6. If the elections were held today, and you were restricted to just these two candidates, which one would you vote for?

55% Bill Clinton

24% None

21% Bob Dole

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AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

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