State budget issues and political ethics trouble Madison residents more than residents in other areas of Wisconsin, according to the latest Wisconsin Policy Research Institute survey.
The survey, conducted between Sept. 26 and Sept. 29 by Harrison Interactive, a global market research and consulting firm, asked 1,004 residents statewide to indicate which issue warranted the most need for state government attention and has a three percent margin of error.
Although the state as a whole did not rank ethics in politics as a high concern, the research shows that 10 percent of Madison area residents believe ethics to be the issue most in need of attention by the state government. Only 3 percent from the Milwaukee suburbs and 3 percent from the La Crosse/Eau Claire area ranked officials' ethics as the issue needing the most attention.
Scandals and the fact that Madison is the capital in close proximity to government decision-making influences Madison's seemingly unique concern for ethics, according to UW-Madison professors.
Charles Franklin, a UW-Madison political science professor, said the coverage of the recent caucus scandal might be a reason for high ethical concern in Madison.
\Part of the effect was simply because of that scandal and that investigation going on,"" he said.
According to Dennis Dresang, also a UW-Madison political science professor, budget and ethics matters are ""process issues rather than policy issues"" and said those who are close to the political process will show the most interest in it.
Except for Waukesha County, the Madison area had the highest percentage of residents, 24 percent, who ranked the state budget as the most important problem for Wisconsin, according to the poll.
The results also revealed that Wisconsin is not particularly concerned with security issues from terrorist attacks. Only 5 percent of Wisconsin residents ranked terrorist attacks as a number one concern, while 11 percent of both Milwaukee City residents and Waukesha County residents placed terrorist attacks as needing the most attention from the state government and
Dresang said Milwaukee, being closer to Chicago which was considered to be more of a target, may explain the Milwaukee public's concern, however in general, he said that Wisconsin is not thought to be a target for international terrorism.
""Clearly the rest of the state is not on anybody's list,"" he said.
The survey breaks down the most important issues among Republicans and Democrats, stating that both view taxes as being the most important matter in Wisconsin.
According to Dresang, looking at this kind of data does not present specific issues or proposals to solve the problems and most of the media do not analyze the data.
""You're left at a very vague, abstract level-and that's not where the problem is solved,"" he said.
