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HUNGER MESSAGE PROJECT 2007 Conclusion - Now is the time to act The trends outlined in this report show many positive signs for hunger advocates. Most American voters believe that hungry people deserve help and that the government has a moral responsibility to provide it and a substantial number are willing to vote at least in part on the hunger and poverty efforts proposed by political candidates. Additionally, they are increasingly willing to spend money on those programs, especially in the domestic context. However, they are also more skeptical of the government’s effectiveness at addressing these problems. Public views of hunger, like those of any political issue, are influenced by a wide variety of other political events. Hunger and poverty advocates will not be able to change these perceptions by themselves, but they can build off the strong foundation of awareness and moral commitment that has developed over the past five years to build support for programs. The country is missing an opportunity to turn an emerging consensus about hunger and poverty into political action.
Methodology The project employed a bipartisan set of political consultants and gave them independence to study the problem and report back whatever conclusions they found. The research team consists of Jim McLaughlin, who helped conduct the polling for Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential race, and has worked as a pollster for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) among others; and Tom Freedman, who served as a senior advisor to President Clinton, was a senior aide for political strategy in President Clinton’s 1996 campaign, and currently serves as a consultant to Democratic elected officials. Mr. McLaughlin worked against Mr. Freedman in the 1996 presidential race, and the team analyzed issues from distinctly different partisan viewpoints. They have been working together on this research since 2002. Each poll conducted for the Hunger Message Project has consisted of more than 1,000 likely general election voters in the United States. The most recent poll was conducted between June 1 and 3, 2007. Previous polls were conducted in: March 2007, November 2006, March 2006, February 2006, June 2005, July 2004, May 2003, and July 2002. All interviews were conducted via telephone by professional interviewers. Interview selection was random within predetermined election units – in this case, the fifty states. These units were weighted to correlate with actual voter turnout in a general election in a presidential year. All the polls have an accuracy of +/- 3.1% at a 95% confidence interval.
Despite the obstacles to reducing hunger, voters are optimistic. RETURN TO HUNGER MESSAGE PROJECT MAIN PAGE
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