Ciruli Associates Poll

Social Security Personal Retirement Accounts
Gather Little Support From Colorado Front Range Voters

Survey Results
March 23, 2005
Analysis by Floyd Ciruli

President George W. Bush’s proposal for personal retirement accounts does not have majority support among Front Range voters.  Only 41 percent of voters from Fort Collins to Pueblo support the accounts, 48 percent disapprove and 11 percent don’t know.  The survey was conducted the week preceding Bush’s visit to Colorado to promote his Social Security proposal.

There is a substantial partisan division in opinion.  Only 12 percent of Democrats approve of the accounts (in fact, Democrats overwhelmingly disapprove – 80%), but 66 percent of Republicans approve.  Unaffiliated voters are in the middle; only 36 percent approve the accounts and 49 percent disapprove.

Question:  A proposal has been made to let current workers put some of their Social Security tax contributions into personal retirement accounts that would be invested in stocks and bonds.  Given what you have seen or heard about the Social Security proposal, at this time, do you approve or disapprove the proposal?  (Democrats are 32% of the sample, Republicans are 42% and unaffiliated voters are 26%.)

Ciruli Associates, N505, 2005

The telephone survey was conducted March 14-17, 2005 by Ciruli Associates with 505 Colorado Front Range registered active voters (±4.4 percentage points).  Front Range counties are:  Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, El Paso, Jefferson, Larimer, Pueblo and Weld (the 12 counties have a total of 2,554,000 voters).  This analysis is part of a series of reports on Colorado and national issues published by Ciruli Associates.  Additional analysis in this series can be found on www.ciruli.com.