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.

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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