NEWS CLIPS

Vocal Minority is Drowned Out By Bipartisan Majorities in Missouri Survey

A December 2007 poll of voters in Missouri paints a profile that a noisy minority won’t particularly care for: Voters of all stripes strongly back the state’s model system of judicial selection, with 71 percent supporting the current system for choosing many state judges, according to a new poll released December 11 by Justice at Stake, Missourians for Fair and Impartial Courts, and the Missouri Institute for Justice.

Bipartisan majorities oppose many of the proposals to change the system recently floated by critics, while 73 percent of those surveyed want Missouri judges to be independent of elected officials like the Governor and state legislature. The survey of 600 Missouri voters was conducted December 4-6, 2007 by Public Opinion Strategies, one of the nation’s premier Republican polling firms, and has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

By a ratio of more than two to one, voters believe that the Supreme Court of Missouri makes its decisions based on the state’s laws and constitution, not the personal beliefs of its seven members. Self-identified Republicans are the most likely to feel this way – 68 percent of Republicans polled feel law trumps ideology for decisions made by the state’s highest court.

The survey also reveals that – perhaps not surprisingly given the strong support for the existing system – only 1 of every 50 Missouri voters see changing the way state judges are selected as a top priority for the Governor and state legislature. Voters are far more likely to cite health care, taxes and government spending, and public education as top priorities.

Public Opinion Strategies is a national public opinion research firm. Called by The New York Times, "the leading Republican polling company," POS currently represents nineteen U.S. Senators, eight Governors, over fifty 50 Members of Congress, and numerous state legislative caucuses.

Download a memo summarizing the results (PDF)