No
Smoking:
Community
Leaders Support Valley-Wide Smoking Ban
By more than a two-to one margin,
community and business leaders across Maricopa County support the adoption of a
Tempe-style smoking ban throughout the Valley, according to the most recent
Valley Influentials Poll. In May, voters in Tempe passed a proposition, which,
among other things, bans smoking in bars, restaurants, and other public places.
Fully 67% of local influentials
would support a ban, while just 30% would oppose it. Three percent (3%) had no
opinion.
"Tempe's landmark decision is
the culmination so far of the principle that smoking belongs in private, not in
public," said Dr. Michael O'Neil, director of the Valley Influentials
Poll. "While non-smoking is by no means a new concept, Tempe has certainly
raised the bar by extending the standard to such places as restaurants, and
especially, to bars."
Support
for a smoking ban is broad-based among community and business leaders in the
Metro Phoenix area and does not appear to be strongly influenced by party
affiliation or ideological conviction. With 80% support, Democrats, however,
are somewhat more likely than Republicans (66%) to favor a ban. (The even lower
support among "others" may be due in part to larger sampling error
for this smaller subset of respondents).
The same pattern holds, though less
definitively, among conservatives and liberals. Whereas 62% of conservatives
favor a smoking ban, fully 72% of moderates and 71% of liberals would support
it.
"Clearly, it is crucial to the
success of the local non-smoking effort that such broad support is present
among community and business leaders. After all, these are the very people who
may have the most clout when future smoking policies are to be pursued and
implemented," said Dr. O'Neil, adding that the survey data lead him to
expect a strong drive to expand non-smoking to other cities in the Valley
during the next election cycle.
Dr. O'Neil continued, "It is
not surprising that conservatives and Republicans are slightly less embracing
of a smoking ban. Anti-smoking has traditionally been somewhat of a liberal
cause, and any type of ban will always run counter to some conservatives' sense
of absolute freedom." In fact, Dr. O'Neil found it more astonishing that
majorities within all groups of community leaders, whether defined by party,
ideology or other dimensions, favor very strong public smoking prohibitions.
(Note:
All subgroup percentages are calculated without "Don't Know"
responses).
About the Poll. The O’Neil Associates Valley Influentials Poll is a web-based survey that was sent to all members of Greater Phoenix Leadership, Valley Leadership, East Valley Partnership, and Westmarc. As such, this survey does not purport to be a random or representative sampling of the general population of the Phoenix metropolitan area. It would be difficult, however, to conceive of a more comprehensive representation from which to draw inferences about the opinions and sensibilities of business and community leaders than the combined membership of these organizations, although, inevitably, any definition of influentials is somewhat subjective. The persons surveyed are likely to exert disproportionate influence on and be an early indicator of community opinion by virtue of their position, community involvement, and political participation. The O’Neil Associates Valley Influentials Poll was not sponsored or paid for by any outside organization. Four hundred eight participants completed the survey between June 13 and June 24, 2002, yielding a margin of error of ±4.5%. O’Neil Associates, Inc. is a Tempe-based public opinion research firm specializing in client-focused attitude and awareness studies for a wide variety of industries and organizations.
FOR RELEASE FRIDAY, JULY 19, 2002, 12 NOON (VIP006-2002-01)
FURTHER INFORMATION: Michael O'Neil, Ph.D., 480-967-4441
These
results may be reported freely provided that they are identified as the “O’Neil
Associates Valley Influentials Poll” including identification on any graphic
material.
O’Neil Associates has
tracked public opinion across the Valley, Arizona, and the Nation since 1981.
To be healthy, public debate must be informed—this is why we commit our
resources to measuring opinions on the political and social issues people care
about and talk about. O’Neil Associates, however, is much more than that.
While the Valley Influentials Poll and Valley Monitor may be our
most publicly visible activities, we do most of our work for private businesses
and organizations as well as state and other public agencies. As a full-service
research firm, we assist our clients with a broad range of research efforts to
measure customer satisfaction, improve customer service, fine-tune public
images, focus marketing campaigns, engineer products, increase market shares,
strengthen employee relations, and plan, refine, and assess business
strategies.