LANSING – A poll conducted by Marketing Resource Group found that 52 percent of those surveyed believe the state is on the wrong track, but a plurality of those voters also believe the state economy has gotten better in the last year and are somewhat optimistic about next year’s performance.
Of those questioned, 63 percent also said they thought the country is on the wrong track.
“Michigan voters are somewhat schizophrenic. They don’t like the current direction the state and nation are heading, but they feel much better about the Michigan economy and where it is going,” Tom Shields, president of MRG, said in a statement. “If their optimism about the Michigan economy is realized in the next year, it may result in a good year for incumbents like Governor Rick Snyder.”
The poll of 600 likely voters was conducted between March 17-23 by live professionally trained telephone interviewers, the group said, matching its other polls released Tuesday about former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, the city of Detroit emergency financial manager and opinions on the state’s right-to-work law.
Asked if the respondent felt things in this country are generally going in the right direction or if they have “gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong track,” according to the language, only 27 percent agreed it was going in the right direction. Asked the same question with the same wording about the state of Michigan, only 36 percent thought it was going in the right direction.
But asked to compare the Michigan economy to a year ago and assess whether the state has gotten better, worse or stayed the same, 39 percent said Michigan had gotten better, 18 percent said worse and 42 percent said about the same.
Looking ahead, 43 percent of those surveyed thought the Michigan economy would be better, 15 percent said worse and 35 percent figured about the same as it is currently.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
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