MerchantCircle, the largest social network of local business owners in the nation, today releases results from a nationwide survey of members. In crucial swing states, 52 percent of 820 small business owners surveyed in Florida planned to vote for Senator John McCain to 33 percent that planned to vote for Senator Barack Obama. In Ohio (338 surveyed), that number in favor of McCain jumps slightly to 54 percent to Obama's 32 percent. The survey was conducted from Sept. 25-Oct. 6 by MerchantCircle, and came from over 4,300 responders in all 50 states. MerchantCircle has 625,000 members across the nation.
"The McCain campaign appears to have separated itself from the Bush administration in the eyes of local businesses. Despite the fact that 52% of those surveyed said the Bush administration has not represented the interests of local business owners well, that does not seem to affect their choice for the next President of the United States," says MerchantCircle Founder, Ben T. Smith, IV. "There's still a tremendous opportunity for the candidates to speak to Main Street America - as is evidenced by the fact that fully 10 percent of those surveyed weren't sure which candidate would most help small businesses grow."
Key findings from the survey:
- Of those (1602 surveyed) who rated that the current administration has represented the interests of local business as "not well at all", 75.3 percent indicate they will vote for Obama, 8.7 percent McCain, 11 percent don't know; and 4.9 percent other
- Supporters of both tickets believe that the candidate's economic policy is the most important issue; Obama supporters are least concerned with lowering taxes; McCain supporters least concerned with health care policies
- 55 percent have seen a "Severe" or "Moderate" decline in sales and revenue over the past year; 49.4 percent of McCain supporters versus 40 percent for Obama supporters.
- McCain had the largest margin of support from businesses with 21+ employees - 64.7 percent to Obama's 27.8 percent. Businesses that identified themselves as having one employee had the closest margin of difference - 47.9 percent indicated they would vote for McCain to 42 percent who would vote for Obama.
More than 96 percent of those surveyed said they plan on voting this November. When asked whether race or age would play a part in the election, only 38 percent said that race would not affect the outcome and only 36 percent believed that age would not be a factor in the decision.
Advance portions of the survey were released last week, with 80 percent of small business owners believing the $700 billion dollar bailout would not help them or were not sure. Complete statistics can be found at http://www.merchantcircle.com/corporate/blog/.