Michigan Residents Split on Chrysler Sale

New data from the Brogan Survey shows that Michigan residents are decidedly split on what the sale of the company from Daimler to Cerberus Capital will mean.

• The highest number (39.5%) felt it would make no difference
• Second place, at 33.3%, were those who thought it would help the company perform better
• 17.8% said it would make the company perform worse

So, you could say that most (57.3%) feel that it won't make it any better. Or you could say that most 72.8% feel that it won't make it any worse. Or you could say that optimists outweigh pessimists by 2:1, as we chose to in our press release.

As you can see, it's relatively easy to spin these things. We're working hard to not spin this data, but to provide it as clearly as we can, showing what we find interesting about it and then sharing the details so you can decide for yourself.

What do you think? Is the Chrysler sale good or bad for Michigan?

Michigan Leadership Survey Has Lots of Data

While Daniel Howes of the Detroit News correctly excerpted parts of the recent Brogan Survey questions on Michigan leadership in today's Crisis of Confidence story, there was much more in that line of questioning.

To read our press release on the subject, click here.

The report card part of the findings were interesting. The 600-person telephone poll asked adults statewide to grade groups of leaders based on how well they are "currently serving the State of Michigan." The choices were aligned like a report card: A, B, C, D or F. The report card results are:

• Civic group leaders B-
• Business leaders C
• Education leaders C
• Union leaders C-
• Elected leaders D+

Note that we intentionally did not focus on any one person, any one organization or any one political party. We were more trying to get at the mood of people in the state to serve as context in advance of the Mackinac event than trying to do a typical political poll.

What do you think? Read all the data from these questions here, completely unfiltered, including cross tabs by region, ethnicity, gender and age. Once you do, leave a comment telling us what you think of all this.

Our Michigan Launch is a Page 1-A Story

The Detroit News certainly found our first Michigan Brogan Survey findings to be of interest. Check out this front page headline, "Crisis of Confidence".
In the story, columnist Daniel Howes notes some of the findings of "Brogan's report-card style survey." We're pleased with the coverage, to be sure, and hope the findings help frame a constructive, productive discussion during the Mackinac Conference.

Strong Support for Smoking Ban Varies By Age and Gender

When asked "would you support or oppose a ban on smoking in North Carolina restaurants and bars?" responses varied depending on age of the person answering. According to the Brogan Survey results, only 27.7% of 18-24 year olds would "strongly support" such a ban. All other age groups had between 43% and 50% of their respondents selecting "strongly support" as their answer to that same question.

Another interesting finding from the survey is that many more women strongly support the ban than do men. 53.3% of women said they would "strongly support" the ban on smoking in North Carolina restaurants and bars while just 38.3% of men answered the same way.

For a full crosstab of the results, click on the link.

Is there a reason why young adults and women seem to have stronger feelings about supporting the ban? What do you think?

Gas Prices Still Soaring

Gas prices in North Carolina averaged a little over $2.83 one month ago, just before respondents completed the Brogan Survey. Based on that price, 59% of respondents told us they had been forced to postpone other purchases. Fast forward to today and the average cost of regular unleaded gas in North Carolina is nearly $3.15, according to AAA's Media Site for retail gasoline prices. That is a $0.32 increase in just four weeks! What does this mean for North Carolinians? Our guess is that the 26.8% who said they didn't intend to change how much they drive this summer will be reconsidering.

Different parts of the state are being affected pretty evenly, with Charlotte, the Triangle and Fayetteville all seeing an increase of $0.31 in the last month. The national average of regular unleaded gas was up to $3.22 as of Monday, coming up $0.12 in the past week.

With no sign of a slowdown in price increase, what will people do? It'll be interesting to see how Memorial Day Weekend turns out; catching up on LOST episodes instead of driving to the beach anyone?

TV Show Cancellation Wishes Vary by NC Region

In yesterday's post, we shared the data on which popular TV shows North Carolina residents surveyed would cancel first. Today, we look at that data by region of the state, and there are significant differences.

• American Idol has a lot of haters in the Southern region, where 19.4% of respondents would tube that show. That's a sharp contrast to their neighbors to the north, where only 1.8% of Coastal residents would get rid of the show.
• The Coastal folks don't like 24 much. They were the most likely region to pick that show to cancel, at 8.8%. The Southern region disagrees again, where only 2.8% would cancel 24.
• The Charlotte region wants to vote Survivor off the island. 24.7% are done with that show. Only 8.3% in the Southern region feel the same...most of them continue to give the show the immunity necklace.
• Speaking of islands, the Southern region also had 19.4% of folks wanting to get rid of Lost, putting it in a tie in that region with Idol. Charlotte has the most Lost fans, with only 6.5% choosing to cancel Locke, Kate, Jack and Sawyer.
• Nobody got too worked up about canceling E.R. (Now it could be because most people thought it was canceled years ago, but that's just us talking here...). The North Central region had 7.1% in favor of taking the show off life support. In contrast, the Western region had nobody (0.0%) give their votes to snuffing out E.R.
• CSI didn't have many people eager to investigate it, either. The Charlotte region at 3.9% slightly edged out the Triangle (3.7%) and the the Coastal (3.5%) region. The North Central folks came in lowest, at 0.9%.
• Everyone saved their animosity for Desperate Housewives, which might just prove that the brightest stars also flame out most brilliantly. The Coastal region kept their powder dry from other shows and used it here, with 40.4% saying they are tired of Wisteria Lane. The Southern region of the state was kindest, coming in at 25.0% who were no longer mourning the passing of Mary Alice.

With the American Idol finale going tonight, we may head to the Southern region, where we're confident it won't be showing... But hey, that's just us...

NC Says: Please cancel "Desperate Housewives"!

At the Brogan Survey we like to ask the occasional fun question as well as the serious ones, just to mix it up a bit.

This North Carolina survey asked 600-people: "If you were a network television executive and you had to cancel one show, which of the following shows would you cancel first?" We rotated the orders of choices so as not to have any bias in the order they were read.

Desperate Housewives "won" in a landslide, meaning people in North Carolina are really ready for that show to go... American Idol came in a surprisingly strong third. (Angry Sanjaya fans maybe??)

Here are the results, the most often canceled first:

• Desperate Housewives: 31.5%
• Survivor: 20.2%
• American Idol: 14.2%
• Lost: 11.9%
• Twenty Four (24): 5.6%
• E. R.: 4.1%
• CSI: 3.1%
• Don't know/refused: 9.5%

We think the picture above shows the Housewives mourning their dwindling fame...

The 600-person telephone survey was conducted May 3-7, 2007 for Brogan & Partners by the Glengariff Group of Chicago. The questions were not commissioned by any candidate, company or organization. You can read press releases that came from the larger survey here.

What do you think? Which show would you cancel first? We thought maybe 24 was the most tired show, but the anti "Housewives" crowd came on strong... Do you agree?

Income Optimism Varies

When we asked North Carolinians: "Thinking about six months from now, do you think your income will be higher or lower than it is today? Or do you think your income will be about the same as today?", we got a wide variety of opinions.

Most people in North Carolina thought there incomes would stay the same. However, some interesting breakdowns in the cross tabs. African Americans were more likely than Caucasians to say they expected their income to rise, but they were also much more likely to say they expected it to fall.

Young people were the most optimistic, as might be expected, with a steady consistent leveling off with age. Males were also more optimistic and more pessimistic than females, suggesting a bit more volatility there.

The 600-person telephone survey was conducted May 3-7, 2007 for Brogan & Partners by the Glengariff Group of Chicago. The questions were not commissioned by any candidate, company or organization. You can read press releases that came from the larger survey here.

Piedmont Pessimists

When asked whether they thought the North Carolina economy was stronger, weaker or about the same as the national economy, there was a real variance in opinion by region of the state.

The Piedmont was by far the most pessimistic. In that region, on 8.0% said the N.C. economy was stronger. Contrast that with the Southern region, where 27.8% felt that economy was stronger. The Charlotte region, the Western counties and the Triangle were all 18 or 19%.

Why the Piedmont pessimism? We don't know. Maybe you do. Leave your best guess as a comment.

NC: African Americans Much More Likely to Support Ban on Tobacco

One interesting piece of data from the question about banning smoking in North Carolina entirely, is that African Americans were significantly more likely to support such a ban.

To be specific, the exact question asked was: "Would you support or oppose a North Carolina law that would ban tobacco use entirely?" And then we asked, "And would that be strongly support/oppose, or somewhat support/oppose."

Here's how the answers differed by race:

Caucasian:

• Strongly support 17.9%
• Somewhat support 8.4%
• Somewhat oppose 15.8%
• Strongly oppose 54.9%

African American:

• Strongly support 28.9%
• Somewhat support 6.6%
• Somewhat oppose 19.7%
• Strongly oppose 42.8%

So 35.5% of North Carolina African-Americans would support a complete ban on tobacco in the state, versus 26.3% of Caucasians. And the opposition is softer among African-Americans as well.

There's a lot of interesting data in this survey. Watch the blog for more data, or better yet, use the tool to the right to subscribe so you can see the latest at a glance...

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