The Thicket at State Legislatures

Poll Results: Watching Legislative Broadcasts

Our poll asking how frequently you watch broadcasts of legislative proceedings, which was based on Pam Greenberg's post, "Is Anybody Watching," was up for about two weeks and drew only 14 responses.  But those who did respond confirmed the legislative junkie nature of our readers: Half of the respondents said that they watch their state's legislative sessions daily.  Two said that they tune in about weekly, and the remaining five said either that they seldom or never watch or that no broad cast is available in their state.

Poll Results: Committee Powers

by Karl Kurtz

Our online poll in The Thicket relating to a posting about the powers of legislative committees, "Should legislative committees have the power to kill bills on their own, or should they be required to report all actions to the chamber?" drew 130 responses.  79 respondents (61%) said that committees should be able to kill bills on their own, while 39 (39%) said that committees should have to report their actions to the chamber as a whole. 

Without having any way of knowing, my best guess would be that the great majority who support the ability of committees to make decisions without approval of the body as a whole were legislative insiders--legislators and staff who see lots of bad legislation and want the system to be efficient as possible.   Readers outside the legislature are more likely to favor a more accountable and democratic legislature in which a small group cannot act on behalf of the entire chamber.

Can You Poll Me Now?

by Gene Rose

With the Iowa caucuses less than a month away, it seems a new poll is released every day. The media can't wait to tell us what we collectively think. It's a much easier story to do than to actually delve into the issues, but that's a topic for another day.

National interest in state legislative races is growing and, consequently, polls are being used more in those races. An interesting story in today's The New York Times, "Cellphones Challenge Poll Sampling," says 16 percent of America's households are cell phone only, up from just 3 percent in 2003.

The rules are different for calling cell phones for poll purposes, the story says, and there are some other ethical, financial and even safety questions that the practice raises.

Since certain populations are more likely to live in land-line free homes, there is some concern on how accurate polling data based on land-line-only calls are. Researchers say the scientific validity of polls are safe for now, but are aware that this could change if the number of homes with cell phones only grows.

The reason most state legislative candidates don't use polls is due to the cost. If pollsters have to start adjusting for land-line-free homes, the cost is likely to go up.

Poll Results: Quiz on Power to Declare War

The Thicket readers have shown that they know their Constitution.  Eighty-three percent of those who responded to the quiz question, Who has the power to declare war?, got it right by answering the Congress.  Fourteen percent said that the President has this power, and two percent each thought that the Secretary of Defense or the Joint Chiefs of Staff can declare war.  The poll, which was based on the posting, "Can You Pass the Citizenship Test?," was up for almost two months (apologies to regular readers who got bored with it) and drew 178 responses.

Poll Results: Hollywood's Civic Duty

Our poll question, "Does Hollywood have a responsibility to portray democratic institutions in a fair and accurate manner?", which was inspired by the posting about the movie Evan Almighty,  was up for more than a month and drew 95 votes.  We were surprised by the results of this one, expecting that the great majority would respond "no" on the basis that Hollywood is in the business of selling stories and anything is fair game.  Instead the results were close with 45 (47 percent) of our readers saying "yes" and 50 (53 percent) "no."

Again proof that our readers truly are legislative junkies.

Poll Results: Confidentiality of Bill Drafts

Our poll, "Do you think that legislators should have the right to share bill drafts (before they are introduced) with some members of the public but not with others?", which was inspired by Bruce Feustel's post, "A Separation of Powers Victory in Wisconsin," drew 36 responses.  In a vote that was closer than we would have expected in a blog whose readers are presumably favorably disposed to the legislative branch, 21 (58%) responded yes and 15 (42%) said no.

Polling Results: The Thicket Readers Truly are Legislative Junkies

Nearly 80 percent (42) of the 53 of you who responded to our poll about the Frederick Wiseman documentary, State Legislature, said that you would be willing to watch a three hour 37 minute video on the Idaho legislature.  Enjoy the popcorn.

Polling Results: Term Limits for Committee Chairs

Of the 25 readers who responded to our poll, do you favor term limits?, 60 percent said yes and 40 percent said no.  Apparently, the majority was not persuaded by the argument that natural turnover and leadership and partisan change take care of the problem of committee chairs who become too entrenched, and they aren't worried that they would lose the talents of expert and skilled committee chairs.

Polling Results: One Year of The Thicket

We were most gratified that 82 percent of the 66 of our readers who responded to our poll rating The Thicket on our one year anniversary said that it is excellent and 11 percent good.  The remaining seven percent said that it is fair or poor.  As always, we welcome suggestions for improvement.

Poll Results: Election Day Registration

Our poll, Do you favor or oppose allowing voters to register up to and including election day?, was up for close to a month (we were a little lazy) and drew 66 votes, almost exactly divided between 34 in favor and 32 in opposition.  The poll was based on our posting, "Increasing Voter Turnout III."

Poll Results: Codes of Conduct for Bloggers

Our poll, "Do you favor codes of conduct for bloggers to deal with problems of anonymous comments that may be slanderous or libelous?," was up for about two weeks and drew 15 votes.  Nine (60%) were in favor of standards of conduct, while 6 (40%) opposed them as being a restraint on free speech.  (There were six "other" votes, four of which were spam and two didn't make much sense.)

Poll Results: Full-time Legislators

Based on Nicole Moore's post, "Conflicts of Interest are Part of the Process," we posed the question, "Should state legislators be full-time (with a full-time salary to match) in order to avoid conflicts of interest?"  This question was up for about a week and drew relatively few responses.  The ones that we received were nearly evenly divided: 11 respondents favored having full-time legislators and 10 were opposed.

Poll Results: Bloggers' Credentials

Our poll on whether bloggers should be given press credentials was up for nearly three weeks and drew lots more votes than any of the previous ones.  Thirty-two respondents (18%) said that legislatures should give press credentials to bloggers, only six (3%) said that they should not, and 133 (77%) said that bloggers should be given credentials only if they meet certain specified criteria.  (Was somebody stuffing the ballot box?  We didn't set up the poll to block repeat voters.  In future polls, we will do so.)

One respondent clicked on "Other" and wrote "unless there is shoddy reporting."  Hmm, that introduces another question: Should legislatures be allowed to revoke press credentials for any reporter (regular or blogger) guilty of "shoddy reporting?"

Poll Results: Electronic Communication and Women Legislators

by Karl Kurtz

With our new polling feature in The Thicket, it occurs to me that we should record for posterity the results of each poll that we run.  After all, this is highly scientific public opinion research, and the world will want to know the results!  Well, OK, perhaps the best that we can claim is that the results of these polls might be mildly interesting to at least a few legislative junkies.  Unfortunately, though, this idea didn't occurred to me until I had erased the results of the first two polls.  But I have a pretty good memory of the results and can provide estimated numbers.

Our first poll, which was up online for about two weeks, related to postings on "Electronic Lobbying During Session--You Make the Call" and "Blackberries--For Communicating or Eating?".  We asked you to vote on whether electronic communication between lobbyists and legislators should be banned during legislative sessions, during sessions and committee meetings, or not at all.  My recollection is that 67 people voted on this question and that you were just about equally divided on the issue.  Responses of those who favored either the session ban or the session/committee ban totaled approximately 34, while 33 of you favored no prohibition on electronic communication with legislators.

The second poll was up for only three or four days and asked you to predict how the number of women serving in state legislatures will change over the next decade.  My memory is that 20 of you (74%) thought that the number would increase a lot, six (22%) said that it would increase somewhat, only one thought that it would stay about the same, and no one said that the number of women would decrease.