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July 23, 2018

Survey: CT voters prioritize jobs, health care, taxes

PHOTO | Contributed Connecticut state Capitol in Hartford.
By Joe Cooper

Jobs, health care and taxes are the most important issues this year for Connecticut voters when electing candidates for governor, the state legislature and U.S. Congress, according to a new survey.

The survey by InformCT, a non-partisan research and outreach group, surfaces just over three weeks before Connecticut’s Republican primary on Aug. 14.

Sixty-four percent of the 505 state residents last month listed employment and jobs as “very important” in determining Connecticut’s next governor on Election Day, Nov. 6. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy will not seek re-election.

Just over 50 percent of respondents listed government budgets as crucial to their vote for governor, while income inequality notched about 44 percent of key concern for voters, according to the study.

Meantime, 63 percent of respondents said health care and taxes are “very important”  in the governor race while education is “very important” to 62 percent of voters, the study says.

Those key issues paired similarly in voting on state House and Senate candidates, but the Congressional races drew health care, taxes and employment/jobs as the chief voting motivators.

In Congressional races, just one-third of Connecticut voters listed foreign affairs and trade as “very important.” Gun policies, national security, terrorism and income inequality are highly important for about 50 percent of respondents in those races.

InformCT, a public-private partnership that provides independent, non-partisan research, analysis and community outreach, drew from voters in late June for the survey administered by the Connecticut Economic Resource Center Inc.

According to a poll released Monday by federal lobbying firm Tremont Public Advisors LLC, Connecticut’s Republican race is led by Mark Boughton, who was favored by 34.3 percent of 1,006 GOP voters. Bob Stefanowski, David Stemerman, Tim Herbst and Steve Obsitnik followed with 20 percent, 14.6 percent, 14.5 percent and 11.6 percent of the vote, respectively.

More state residents are registering as Democrats vs. Republicans since President Donald Trump earned a seat in the White House in Nov. 2016, the Connecticut Mirror has reported.

From 2016 to June, nearly 82,000 new voters registered as Democrats and about 43,390 registered as Republicans, according to the Connecticut Secretary of State’s office.

Including unaffiliated voters, and those registering in smaller parties, more than 275,000 voters have registered in Connecticut since Trump was elected, CT Mirror reported.

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