/
A MerchantCircle survey of members finds that 54% of small business owners plan on voting for McCain/Palin despite nearly 53% saying the current administration has not adequately addressed their needs. 36% support Obama/Biden. While this is a far from scientific poll, it’s significant in that one can’t ignore small business owners but it also comes from a website that appeals to more tech savvy business owners, a group of the electorate many assume Obama has locked up. Unfortunately there are no dates attached to the survey so it’s hard to tell if this takes into account reaction to the $700 billion bailout package approved last week.
MerchantCircle includes some interesting data:
- Of those (1602 surveyed) who rated that the current administration has represented the interests of local business as “not well at all”, 75.3% indicate they will vote for Obama, 8.7% McCain, 11% don’t know; and 4.9% other.
- 55% have seen a “Severe” or “Moderate” decline in sales and revenue over the past year; 49.4% of McCain supporters versus 40% for Obama supporters.
- McCain had the largest margin of support from businesses with 21+ employees – 64.7% to Obama’s 27.8%. Businesses that identified themselves as having one employee had the closest margin of difference – 47.9% indicated they would vote for McCain to 42% who would vote for Obama.
