2/21/18
Contact: Tremont Public Advisors 860-986-7737
Hartford - Connecticut residents are leaning toward putting a Republican in the Governor’s Mansion as the 2018 race for governor starts to take shape. In a poll released today by the public affairs firm Tremont Public Advisors, Connecticut residents said they were more likely to support the Republican (50.9%) over the Democrat (44.8%) candidates for governor on election day this November.
The survey of 1,003 Connecticut residents over the age of 18 also showed, of the named candidates for governor tested in the survey, there was no candidate from either party dominating the crowded field of approximately 25 potential candidates. However, New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart demonstrated some relative strength, out-polling the other named candidates in the survey.
Connecticut residents also expressed cautious optimism about their financial future with 39.3% expressing confidence they would be better off financially in the coming year. 43.4% of residents said their situation would remain the same and only 17.3% felt they would be worse off.
“There is good news for Republicans in the survey results released today.”, stated Matthew J. Hennessy, Managing Director of Tremont Public Advisors. “State Republicans continue to have a good shot of taking the governor’s office and potentially have a candidate in Mayor Erin Stewart that might possibly blunt the historic electoral strength Democrats have with women voters.”
Hennessy also stated, “Democrats have to be concerned that there has a been an erosion in their support since December. To be successful, Democratic candidates will have to present themselves as credible change agents and connect the policies of a deeply unpopular president to the Republican candidates for governor.
The good news for Democrats is that survey respondents are expressing optimism about their personal financial situation, which may undermine attempts to blame state Democrats for poor stewardship of the state economy.
Residents are giving an edge to the Republicans in the race for governor. However, no candidate has gained enough support to be deemed a front-runner and it will likely be months before the leaders emerge from either party.”
Q.1
If the 2018 election for Governor of Connecticut were held today, for whom would you vote?
2/21 12/17*
The Democratic candidate for Governor 26% 24.7%
The Republican candidate for Governor 24.6% 32.8%
New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart 15.2% N/A
Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton 11.1% 8.9%
Former CT Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz 10.0% 9.6%
Businessman Ned Lamont 8.8% 7.5%
Undecided/Other Candidate** 4.3% N/A
Total Republican (“Generic” +Named) 50.9% 47.9%
Total Democrat (“Generic +Named) 44.8% 52.1%
* The 12/17 Tremont Poll did not allow respondents to write in other candidates.
** In the 2/21/18 survey, nine additional candidates received “write in” votes. None exceeded 1%.
Q.2
Looking ahead, do you expect that at this time next year you will be financially better off than now, or worse off than now?
2/21 6/16 -Quinnipiac Poll
The Same 43.4% 19%
Better 39.3% 42%
Worse 17.3% 30%
About Tremont Public Advisors, LLC: Tremont Public Advisors is a leading Public Affairs and Federal Lobbying firm in Washington D.C. and Hartford, Connecticut.
Poll Methodology
This survey of 1,003 and 1,027 Connecticut residents over the age of 18 was conducted between 2/15/18 and 2/17/18 using an on-line survey platform. Respondents were allowed to take the survey only once and were restricted from choosing more than one answer. The survey answers have a MMOE of no more than +/- 3%. The poll population consisted of two panels of respondents: (1) internet users reading content on a network of web publisher sites, and (2) smartphone users who have downloaded and signed up to use an Android app. To correct for sampling bias after the survey is run, weighting was used to upweight under-represented groups and down-weight overrepresented groups using Census Data.