October 23, 1996

The Mother Jones Poll

There were 550 respondents to last week’s poll. Here’s what they had to say. Be sure to participate in our <a href="/news_wire/soapbox/">latest poll</a>. Also, check out the <a href="poll_archive.html">results</a> of our previous polls.

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1. What do you think is the best method to reform campaign financing?

19% Elimination of Political Action Committees (PACs)

18% Complete public financing

15% None. I don’t support campaign finance reform.

13% Free television time for candidates who are on the ballot in all 50 states.

11% Stricter contribution limits

11% Stricter spending caps

4% Electronic filing of contributions

9% No response

2. Which party do the following special interest groups/industries contribute more to: Republicans, Democrats, or equal amounts to both parties? (Figures are from the 1994 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics).

a. Defense sector — Democrats

b. American Institute of CPA’s — Equal

c. Energy/Natural Resources sector — Republican

d. National Rural Letter Carriers Association — Democrats

e. Ideological/single-issue PACs — Democrats

f. National Beer Wholesalers Association — Republicans

g. Philip Morris — Democrats

3. Help Dole go negative: Write a bumper sticker slogan for his campaign to use to attack Clinton (Best answer wins a MoJo Wire hat).

And our winners are…

“Chelsea: The Only Clinton America Trusts” (Phoebe VanScoy)

“Shifty Redneck or Embittered Veteran: The choice is clear” (Mike T.)

Congratulations!

4. Fill in the blanks below to fill in the following quotes:

a. George Bush hinted that Bill Clinton’s trip to Moscow as a student was somehow treasonous.

b. George Bush’s campaign ads said that Willie Horton’s parole and subsequent crimes, showed that Michael Dukakis was too easy on criminals while Governor.

c. Bob Dole said, “Who is this guy? What does he know about it? . . . His word’s no good,” about Bill Clinton, during a rally in New Jersey.

d. Bob Dole said, He’s “liberal, liberal, liberal.” about Bill Clinton.

e. Bob Dole said that Bill Clinton reminded him of his brother Kenny, “the great exaggerator,” who liked to say things that were “not quite accurate.”

f. Bill Clinton said it’s not Bob Dole’s age that concerned him, it’s the age of his ideas.

5. If the elections were held today, and all these candidates had an equal chance of winning, who would you vote for?

39% Harry Browne (Libertarian)

26% Ralph Nader (Green Party)

21.6% Bill Clinton (Democrat)

5% Bob Dole (Republican)

4% Ross Perot (Reform Party)

2% None

2% John Hagelin (Natural Law Party)

.4% Howard Phillips (U.S. Taxpayers Party)

0% Lyndon Larouche (Democrat)

6. If the elections were held today, and you were restricted to just these two candidates, which one would you vote for?

55% Bill Clinton

24% None

21% Bob Dole

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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