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Ohioans like ‘right-to-work’ idea, poll says  
February  15, 2012 

Ohio should become the nation’s 24th “right-to-work state,” voters in a new poll declare. 

By a 14-point margin – 50 percent to 36 percent – participants in the Quinnipiac Poll say the Buckeye State should join Indiana in making it more difficult to mandate union membership. The poll comes less than four months after Ohio voters crushed Senate Bill 5 by 23 points in a referendum on slashing public employee union rights. 

“Given the assumption that the SB 5 referendum was a demonstration of union strength in Ohio, the 54 – 40 percent support for making Ohio a ‘right-to-work’ state does make one take notice,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, in a statement. 

“In the SB 5 referendum independent voters, who are generally the key to Ohio elections, voted with the pro-union folks to repeal the law many viewed as an effort to handicap unions. The data indicates that many of those same independents who stood up for unions this past November on SB 5 are standing up to unions by backing ‘right-to-work’ legislation.” 

The concept draws favor from independents 55 percent to 39 percent. Republicans back “ right-to-work” by 77 percent to 20 percent, while Democrats are opposed 61 percent to 31 percent. 

Respondents were asked: “Indiana recently became a ‘right-to-work’ state, meaning that workers can no longer be required to join a union or pay dues or fees to a union as a condition of employment. Do you think that Ohio should become a ‘right-to-work’ state or don’t you think so?” 

The poll shows that Ohioans also favor raising the speed limit on interstates to 70 mph and back a bill that would ban smoking inside a car when a child 6 or younger is present. 

Gov. John Kasich’s approval rating crept higher, to a net minus 6 points; 40 percent approve of his performance, 46 percent disapprove. 

“When a governor’s approval rating in his own party can’t overcome the disapproval by the opposition party and he is getting bad reviews from independent voters, it is a sign of political weakness,” said Brown. “The governor still has almost three years until he faces the voters, but he would certainly like to get his job approval into the mid-40s, at least. The good news for him is that he is slightly more popular than the legislature, which gets 48 – 35 percent disapproval.” 

The telephone poll, which includes land and cell lines, from February 7 through Sunday of 1,421 registered Ohio voters has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points. 

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