Influence Alley

Resurgent Republic and Democracy Corps have their post-election storylines ready: that voters want the government to focus on promoting opportunity, and that voters’ top priority is investing in middle class economic security.

Whit Ayres of right-leaning Resurgent Republic and Stan Greenberg of left-leaning Democracy Corps will present their post-election survey results tomorrow at the Bipartisan Policy Center’s annual political summit.

Ayres found that 54 percent of voters – and nearly a third of Obama voters -- say government policies should “promote opportunity by fostering job growth” rather than promote fairness by having the rich pay “their fair share.” Ayres conclusions: the national electorate is center-right on the role of government, and President Obama doesn’t have a very strong policy mandate.

Greenberg found that two-thirds of voters say they want congressional Republicans to work with President Obama “to achieve his goals,” including 42 percent of people who voted for a Republican to serve in Congress. His conclusions: there’s no mandate to put reducing the deficit over education and infrastructure investments and keeping Social Security and Medicare.