New York Times: Americans Want Disclosure and Limits on Campaign Spending
By Megan Thee-Brenan
In a year of record campaign spending, Americans overwhelmingly support limits on corporate and advocacy group funding of campaign advertisements, strongly support limits on how much campaigns can spend and favor full disclosure of spending by both campaigns and outside groups.
The latest New York Times/CBS News Poll found that nearly 8 in 10 Americans say it is important (including 6 in 10 who say "very important") to limit the amount of money campaigns can spend. While majorities of each party’s registered voters agree that limits are important, Democrats (68 percent) and independents (59 percent) are more likely than Republicans (52 percent) to say it is "very" important.
Americans are even more supportive of full disclosure by campaigns with 92 percent saying it is important for campaigns to be required by law to disclose how much money they have raised, where the money came from and how it was used. There was little difference in the opinions of each party’s voters on this question.
This is the first national election since January’s Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United case which opened up the floodgates to such spending. In the poll, more than 7 in 10 of the public said spending by groups not affiliated with a candidate should be limited by law, and just 2 in 10 said it shouldn’t. Although strong majorities of each party’s voters said corporate spending should be limited, Democrats are even more likely than Republicans to say as much.
Young voters and those who describe themselves as conservatives were less likely in general than others to see campaign spending issues as important.
The nationwide telephone poll was conducted Oct. 21-26 with 1,173 adults of whom 1,073 are registered to vote. The margin of sampling error for both groups is plus or minus three percentage points.
