Voters who oppose SB 5 on the rise

By Marc Kovac

news@vindy.com

COLUMBUS

The number of Ohio voters who oppose Senate Bill 5 is on the rise, according to the latest survey by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

But a majority of those respondents still support some of the provisions included in the controversial collective-bargaining law.

Among the 1,668 voters questioned over the past week, 57 percent said Senate Bill 5 should be repealed, compared with 32 percent who support the law.

Opposition was up from a September poll, in which voters opposed Issue 2 by a margin of 51 percent-38 percent.

“With two weeks until Election Day, the opponents of SB 5 have strong reason to be optimistic,” Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a released statement. “The opponents had seen their 24-point margin in July close over the summer and early autumn. As we enter the home stretch, however, they have once again taken a commanding lead. Except for Republicans, just about every demographic group favors repealing the law.”

Connecticut-based Quinnipiac regularly gauges Ohioans’ opinions on issues and candidates. The results of Tuesday’s survey have a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.

Respondents gave Gov. John Kasich low ratings, with 52 percent disapproving of his job performance and 36 percent approving of it.

That compares with 49 percent disapproval, 40 percent approval in September.

On Senate Bill 5, a majority of respondents support basing public employee pay on their job performance rather than seniority and requiring those workers to pay at least 15 percent toward their health care and at least 10 percent toward their pensions.

Asked about the poll Tuesday, Kasich said the pro-Senate Bill 5 campaign would continue pushing for its passage.

“We’re going to keep working,” he said. “We think this is the right thing to create an environment for cities to be able to be successful. We’re giving them the tools, we’re making the case, we’re going to make it all the way up to Election Day, and we’ll see how it all comes out.”

And Jason Mauk, spokesman for Building a Better Ohio, the pro-Issue 2 campaign, added in a released statement, “We continue to make progress when the facts are compared side-by-side, but we’re also facing the most deceptive and well-funded opponents of reform you’ll find anywhere in the country.”

But Melissa Fazekas, spokeswoman for We Are Ohio, the campaign in opposition to Senate Bill 5, said the poll results show that Ohioans grasp the potential impact of the Issue 2.

“Ohioans understand that Issue 2 is unfair and unsafe and bad for our local communities,” she said in a released statement.