PublicMind Polling, Surveys, Market Analysis

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For immediate release Monday, April 27, 2015                                 

Contact Dan Cassino   973.896.7072 dcassino@fdu.edu       @dancassino

New Jersey agrees on corruption, but only in principle

With a number of recent allegations of bad behavior on the part of New Jersey politicians of both parties, voters are increasingly being asked to decide how politicians should, and should not, be able to use their sway. According to the latest results from Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind poll, New Jersey residents overwhelmingly say the actions that politicians have recently been accused of are unacceptable.

People were asked about five different potentially corrupt actions, and to decide whether they were acceptable or not. Sixty-seven percent of New Jersey say that all five – ranging from fixing traffic tickets to accepting large gifts and vacations – are unacceptable. Importantly, Republicans and Democrats are about equally likely to view these actions as corrupt: in both groups, 66 percent say that all five of the actions are unacceptable.

“It’s easy to be cynical about these issues, to say that Democrats are fine with whatever Democratic politicians do, and Republicans are fine with whatever Republican politicians do,” said Dan Cassino, a professor of political science at Fairleigh Dickinson and an analyst for the poll. “But when you take the particulars out of a case, there’s general agreement on what is and isn’t okay.”

The most recent allegations have centered on Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, who has been indicted on charges of receiving inappropriate gifts and travel from a campaign donor, as well as intervening on behalf of that donor with federal agencies. Eighty-eight percent of New Jersey residents say that it’s unacceptable for politicians to accept large gifts and vacations from supporters, with only nine percent saying that it’s OK. A much larger proportion – twenty-three percent – say that it’s acceptable for politicians to contact government agencies on behalf of friends or political allies, with 71 percent saying that doing so is unacceptable. Menendez denies doing anything inappropriate.

“There’s been a lot made of Menendez contacting the State Department to help donors get visas for friends,” said Cassino. “At least in New Jersey, a lot of people seem to think that’s just fine.”

In March, an Associated Press story alleged that millions of dollars in state tax breaks were going to businesses in Camden linked to Christie’s political allies, especially Democrat George Norcross. Much of the aid, which, in some cases was worth more than the businesses receiving it, went to businesses related to Norcross or members of his family. In the survey, only three percent of New Jersey says that it’s acceptable for politicians to funnel state money to businesses owned by political allies; 93 percent say that it’s unacceptable.

“Voters seem much more willing to call something unacceptable when there’s money involved,” said Cassino. “With taxes the way they are in New Jersey, no one wants to see money being used for anything that’s not needed.”

Recently, the New Jersey state senate approved legislation that would have allowed Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis, among a few other office holders, to collect a police or firefighter pension in addition to their current salary for political office, a practice that was banned in 2012. If passed, the legislation would have allowed Davis to collect a pension of $120,000 per year, in addition to his $72,000 mayoral salary. The sponsor of the bill in the State Senate has said that it was designed to encourage more people to run for office, and denied that it was written to help anyone in particular. Eighty-four percent of New Jersey residents say that it’s unacceptable for politicians to pass legislation designed to help individual political allies; only 11 percent say that it’s OK.

Perhaps the most classic instance of politicians throwing their weight around is getting traffic tickets fixed for friends and relatives. In a recent case in Dover, the township was alleged to have referred tickets given to political allies of the mayor to a non-existent courtroom so that they could be dismissed without police or municipal prosecutors being informed. While it may be thought to be widespread, only eight percent of New Jersey says that it’s OK for politicians to fix traffic tickets for friends and relatives, though 16 percent of the youngest voters – ages 18 to 34 –say that it’s acceptable.

“It’s probably not a coincidence that young drivers, the ones most likely to get traffic tickets, are the ones most likely to say that it’s OK to have someone fix them,” said Cassino. “This might be more wishful thinking on their part than anything else.”

The results also include evidence that the allegations against Menendez are driving perceptions of corruption. Individuals who say that they’ve seen some, or a lot, of news about the indictment are more likely to say that all the actions described are unacceptable. For instance, 13 percent of New Jersey residents who say that they haven’t seen much about the indictment say that it’s OK for politicians to accept large gifts and travel from supporters, compared with just six percent of those who’ve seen a lot about the indictment.

“When people see allegations of corruption in the news, they get angry,” said Cassino. “And the more they see, the less willing they are to give politicians the benefit of the doubt.”

 

The Fairleigh Dickinson University poll of 911 adults in New Jersey was conducted by telephone with both landline and cell phones from April 13 through April 19. The margin of error is +/- 3.3 percentage points.

Methodology

The most recent survey by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind was conducted by telephone from February 23 through March 1 using a randomly selected sample of 901 adults in New Jersey. One can be 95 percent confident that the error attributable to sampling has a range of +/- 3.3 percentage points. The margin of error for subgroups is larger and varies by the size of that subgroup. Survey results are also subject to non-sampling error. This kind of error, which cannot be measured, arises from a number of factors including, but not limited to, non-response (eligible individuals refusing to be interviewed), question wording, the order in which questions are asked, and variations among interviewers.

PublicMind interviews are conducted by Opinion America of Cedar Knolls, NJ, with professionally trained interviewers using a CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing) system. Random selection >is achieved by computerized random-digit dialing. This technique gives every person with a landline phone number (including those with unlisted numbers) an equal chance of being selected.

Landline households are supplemented with a separate, randomly selected sample of cell-phone respondents interviewed in the same time frame. The total combined sample is mathematically weighted to match known demographics of age, race and gender.

The sample was purchased from Marketing Systems Group and the research was funded by Fairleigh Dickinson University

 

Number of activities called "acceptable"
		Party			Age
		Republican	Independent	Democrat	18-29	30-44	45-59	60+
0	67%	66%	68%	66%	50%	65%	68%	72%
1	22%	21%	24%	25%	20%	24%	23%	21%
2	6%	9%	4%	5%	17%	7%	7%	4%
3	3%	3%	4%	3%	7%	3%	2%	2%
4	1%	1%	1%	1%	5%		0%	1%
5	1%	1%		1%	1%	1%	0%	0%

 

 

Number of activities called "acceptable"
		Male	Female	Liberal	Moderate	Conservative
0	66%	68%	66%	69%	64%	71%
1	23%	20%	24%	21%	24%	21%
2	6%	7%	6%	5%	8%	5%
3	3%	3%	3%	4%	3%	2%
4	1%	1%	0%	1%	1%	1%
5	0%	1%	0%	0%	0%	1%

 

 

Fixing Traffic Tickets for friends and relatives
		Party			Gender
		Dem	Indp	Rep	Male	Female
Acceptable	8	9	5	9	9	7
Unacceptable	90	89	91	91	89	91
Both [Vol]	1	1	1	0	1	1
Don't Know [Vol]	1	1	2	0	1	1
Refused [Vol]	0	0	0	0	0	0

 

Fixing Traffic Tickets for friends and relatives
		Age			Heard about Menendez
		18 to 34	35-59	60+	A lot/Some	Little/Nothing
Acceptable	8	16	6	4	4	13
Unacceptable	90	80	93	95	96	84
Both [Vol]	1	2	0	0	0	1
Don't Know [Vol]	1	2	1	1	0	2
Refused [Vol]	0	0	0	0	0	0

 

 

Accepting large gifts and vacations from political supporters
		Party			Gender
		Dem	Indp	Rep	Male	Female
Acceptable	9	10	10	8	9	9
Unacceptable	88	87	88	90	88	87
Both [Vol]	1	1	1	1	1	1
Don't Know [Vol]	1	1	1	1	1	2
Refused [Vol]	1	0	0	0	0	1

 

Accepting large gifts and vacations from political supporters
		Age			Heard about Menendez
		18 to 34	35-59	60+	A lot/Some	Little/Nothing
Acceptable	9	20	6	4	6	13
Unacceptable	88	78	91	93	92	83
Both [Vol]	1	2	1	1	1	1
Don't Know [Vol]	1	1	1	2	1	2
Refused [Vol]	1	0	1	0	0	1

 

Passing legislation designed to help individual political allies
		Party			Gender
		Dem	Indp	Rep	Male	Female
Acceptable	11	12	14	7	9	13
Unacceptable	84	82	81	89	86	82
Both [Vol]	1	1	1	1	1	1
Don't Know [Vol]	3	4	3	1	3	3
Refused [Vol]	1	1	0	1	1	1

 

Passing legislation designed to help individual political allies
		Age			Heard about Menendez
		18 to 34	35-59	60+	A lot/Some	Little/Nothing
Acceptable	11	18	8	9	7	16
Unacceptable	84	76	87	87	91	76
Both [Vol]	1	2	1	1	1	1
Don't Know [Vol]	3	4	3	2	1	6
Refused [Vol]	1	0	1	1	0	1

 

 

 

Funneling state money to businesses owned by political allies
		Party			Gender
		Dem	Indp	Rep	Male	Female
Acceptable	3	4	5	2	4	3
Unacceptable	93	92	92	96	93	93
Both [Vol]	0	1	0	0	0	1
Don't Know [Vol]	3	2	3	1	2	2
Refused [Vol]	1	1	0	0	1	1

 

Funneling state money to businesses owned by political allies
		Age			Heard about Menendez
		18 to 34	35-59	60+	A lot/Some	Little/Nothing
Acceptable	3	6	2	2	2	6
Unacceptable	93	90	94	94	97	89
Both [Vol]	0	1	0	0	0	1
Don't Know [Vol]	3	3	2	3	1	4
Refused [Vol]	1	0	1	0	0	1

 

Contacting government agencies on behalf of a friend or political ally
		Party			Gender
		Dem	Indp	Rep	Male	Female
Acceptable	23	23	22	26	23	24
Unacceptable	71	73	73	70	71	70
Both [Vol]	2	2	2	2	2	3
Don't Know [Vol]	2	1	2	2	3	2
Refused [Vol]	1	1	1	0	1	1

 

 

 

Contacting government agencies on behalf of a friend or political ally
		Age			Heard about Menendez
		18 to 34	35-59	60+	A lot/Some	Little/Nothing
Acceptable	23	24	25	21	21	26
Unacceptable	71	67	70	74	75	66
Both [Vol]	2	5	2	2	1	3
Don't Know [Vol]	2	4	1	2	1	4
Refused [Vol]	1	0	2	1	1	1

 

 

Sample Characteristics

		New Jersey Residents N = 911; MoE = +/- 3
Gender	Male	48%
	Female	52%
Age	18-34	28%
	35-59	41%
	60+	31%
	Refused	1%
Race	White	61%
	African American	14%
	Hispanic	14%
	Asian	6%
	Other/Refused	4%
Party (with leaners)	Dem	41%
	Ind/DK/Refused	27%
	Repub	31%