Voters respond strongly to issues such as food safety or assuring that children, veterans and the elderly have enough to eat, said pollster Celinda Lake. “To summarize, these messages tested off the charts,” Lake said during a tele-conference to discuss a poll commissioned by the advocacy group Food Policy Action. Responses from the 1,009 adults, including 766 likely voters in the Nov 4 elections, show voters are highly interested in the issues.
“They would be messages that would be very, very strong,” Lake said, if a candidate used them. “These are high-testing messages.”
For the survey, Lake Research Partners asked about assuring food stamps for out-of-work veterans, adequate funding for food inspections, providing food stamps for the elderly and children, and curtailing crop subsidies to corporate farms. Participants in the survey identified highly with the messages. At least 30 percent of Republicans, Democrats and independents said each was “very convincing.”
“These issues resonate if people think about them, if we can break through the noise,” said FPA chairman Ken Cook. “The important thing is to establish these issues have traction.” FPA is scheduled to release its scorecard for members of Congress next week.