Survey Says

New Polls Show We Ain’t Pleased

By Howard Rothman, 10-20-05

Apparently, Coloradoans are an increasingly unhappy bunch. First, a poll last week found our support for both President Bush and the Iraq war continues waning. Now, a new poll finds few of us think the state is going in the right direction -- and the older we are, the more pessimistic our opinion. Both indicate a marked decline in public support for GOP policies and leaders. And, interestingly, both were taken by a polling firm with proud ties to the Republican party -- a fact that neither Rocky Mountain News story touting the results deemed worthy of mention.

In the latest survey, commissioned by the Rocky and CBS 4, just 45% of state residents said they felt Colorado was going in the right direction while only 39% of those 65 and older liked what they were seeing. Two years ago, according to the same poll, 58% of the general public -- and 67% of our senior residents -- thought we were on the right track. And ongoing surveys by Ciruli Associates show we haven't had such a negative opinion of our state's direction since a similar poll was begun in 1988. So what's gone wrong lately? According to an 85-year-old from Snowmass, primary reasons for the recent downturn are the Bush Administration and Gov. Bill Owens. Economic concerns and a general feeling of unease following the Katrina debacle also contributed heavily to the current overall pessimism, according to the pollsters.

In last week's survey -- also commissioned by the paper and Denver TV station -- only 36% of Coloradoans said they now support the war in Iraq, down dramatically from the 55% who supported it two years earlier. And only 45% of us now think President Bush is doing a good job, down from 61% at the end of 2003.

Interestingly, both of these recent polls were taken by Public Opinion Strategies or POS, a national firm with offices in Denver, Washington and Los Angeles that proudly describes itself on its website as "a Republican polling firm" that was "part of the Bush-Cheney '04 polling team." A final note on a self-congratulatory press release states: "POS is pleased to have played a role in this historic 2004 election, and wishes to congratulate the architects of the Republican victory: President George W. Bush, Senators Bill Frist and George Allen, and Congressmen Tom Reynolds and Tom DeLay, and their staffs."

Imagine what results they might have found if they were unbiased.

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