Survey Says....

It is not all that difficult for an elected official to say “no” to lobbyists of unpopular causes. Some legislators aren’t afraid to curse them out in the hallway and explain what, um, schmucks they are. Especially if they don’t represent campaign contributors.

But declining is harder when a legislator is met by a supporter of an idea that’s popular with the public, even if the idea isn’t practical.

That’s where public opinion polling comes into play. Demonstrating that a group of legislators is at odds with the public can add serious political pressure, even if the public has incredibly foolish views or doesn’t really care.

And here’s the best part: Polling can make the public appear to like or dislike just about anything.

By tactfully wording questions, choosing respondents and packaging results, pollsters can make the public appear supportive of whatever they are pushing, particularly as most legislators don’t have time to comb through research methodology (which usually isn’t included in survey results, anyway).

So it should be no surprise that larger lobbying firms have not only added public relations units, but many of them contract with large polling companies in Washington, D.C. or New York – or, increasingly, with Quinnipiac University in Hamden, which has built a large polling organization and reputation.

Insuring Opinion
Associations are increasingly turning to polling, too. Take the group “Insure Connecticut’s Future,” formed last year by insurance companies grown tired of taxes and regulation.

Apparently, legislators didn’t realize that the average Connecticut resident walks around thinking how important the insurance industry is to his own well-being. A poll was in order.

But first, to pump up the results, the insurers hired the Glastonbury firm Cronin & Co. to buy radio and print advertisements pointing out that taxes paid by insurers and their employees help in “improving roads, schools, hospitals, libraries and public safety.”

On the group’s Web site it created three animated stories of how insurance improves our lives. Sam, an asthmatic Little Leaguer, is the third best batter on his team, the narrator says, “all thanks” to a health program “funded by a Connecticut insurance company.” Now Sam can play basketball at the “insurance-supported Boys & Girls Club near his house, the house his mom bought through a home ownership program developed with an insurance foundation grant.”

Then, to show how much residents really value the insurance industry (or, maybe, how well its ads worked) the group surveyed 800 residents and found that 93 percent believe the insurance industry plays an important role in the state’s economy.

Among questions that weren’t asked: “Are you happy with how much you pay for health insurance in light of the $30.86 million in total compensation that Aetna CEO Ronald A. Williams took home last year?”

All sides play the polling game, of course. Connecticut Voices for Children, a backer of expanding health care, released poll results in March commissioned by the New England Alliance of Children’s Health, which pushes for more health care across the region. Conducted by Lake Research Partners, a liberal D.C. polling firm funded by labor unions, those results showed that 89 percent of 400 Connecticut voters wanted health care for all children.

Just Cause
Just as with the insurers, the health care advocates had little doubt when beginning their poll that the results would help their cause. Respondents were asked to rate their level of agreement or disagreement with reasons for spending more on children’s insurance, such as “All children should have the health care they need to grow and learn.” About 96 percent at least somewhat agreed, but who wouldn’t?

The survey did probe further, asking if each American should be willing to pay $28 per year to cut the number of uninsured children in half. Most respondents agreed.

But it is too bad the group didn’t survey babies, children and the indigent, because all Americans seem to be included in the $28-per-American estimate, and it’s a good bet we won’t see toddlers filling out I.R.S. forms come April. It’s also unlikely the group would find agreement on the cost it suggests, $8 billion per year, among conservative taxpayers groups.

Did they survey the Yankee Institute?

Jonathan O’Connell is a Hartford Business Journal Staff Writer.