{"id":51614,"date":"2019-12-05T14:01:50","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T20:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=51614"},"modified":"2019-12-05T14:01:55","modified_gmt":"2019-12-05T20:01:55","slug":"%ef%bb%bfkansas-speaks-2019-survey-of-kansas-opinion-includes-medicaid-guns-and-the-new-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=51614","title":{"rendered":"\ufeffKansas Speaks 2019 survey of Kansas opinion includes Medicaid, guns and the new governor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kansas Speaks Fall 2019, a survey on issues of importance and on the attitudes of Kansans about their state, was released today by the Docking Institute of Public Affairs at Fort Hays State University.

Kansas Speaks is the only regular survey of Kansans on issues and opinions.

Among the questions presented to respondents was the performance of Gov. Laura Kelly, who is finishing up her first year in the governor\u2019s mansion.

\u201cThis was the first rating of Gov. Laura Kelly in a Kansas Speaks survey,\u201d said Dr. Brett Zollinger, Docking director and a professor of sociology at Fort Hays State.

\u201cMore than half are satisfied with the Governor\u2019s overall performance, the highest satisfaction among the political figures and institutions rated,\u201d he said.

Specifically, 52.7 percent of respondents to the survey are satisfied so far with Gov. Kelly, and 26.4 percent are dissatisfied. On President Donald Trump, 44.1 percent are satisfied, and 44.3 percent are dissatisfied.

The 2019 survey, conducted by Fort Hays State University\u2019s Docking Institute of Public Affairs and released today, interviewed 352 Kansans by phone (land line and cell). The survey has a 5.2-percent margin of error.

The Docking\u2019s staff and team of Policy Fellows from across the state developed 24 questions in four areas: overall quality of life in Kansas; taxes and the economy; government and politicians; and public policy issues. The series began in 2009.

One hot-button issue covered in this year\u2019s survey was Medicaid expansion. The survey found wide support in Kansas.

\u201cAlmost two-thirds \u2013 62 percent \u2013 of Kansans support Medicaid expansion,\u201d said Dr. Jian Sun, a professor of political science at FHSU and the Docking\u2019s assistant director. Fifteen percent of survey respondents were neutral on the issue, and 23 percent did not support expansion.

Other questions on Medicaid covered perceived benefits of expansion.

\u201cOver 60 percent agree that Medicaid expansion would help rural Kansas hospitals and agree that those who might obtain health insurance from the expansion deserve this benefit,\u201d said Sun. \u201cClearly this issue is on the minds of Kansans, as only 22 percent give Medicaid expansion no thought at all as a current political issue.\u201d

Gun control and prisons were among the policy issues addressed.

One question sought respondents\u2019 sentiment on seven gun control issues: Background checks; an assault weapon ban; a ban on high-capacity magazines; preventing sales of firearms to people \u201cwho have been reported as dangerous to law enforcement by a mental health provider\u201d; an age requirement of 21 or older to purchase guns; preventing firearms sales to people convicted of violent misdemeanors; and a mandatory three-day waiting period.

\u201cOver half of Kansans support each,\u201d said Dr. Patrick Miller, a Docking Policy Fellow, \u201cwith support on these items ranging from 52 percent in support of banning assault-style weapons to 88 percent in support of requiring background checks on all gun sales.\u201d

Miller is an associate professor of political science at the University of Kansas.

One question also asked respondents to rate the frontrunners in the presidential primary for the Democratic Party.

\u201cBernie Sanders has the highest positive and highest negative ratings of any Democratic candidate,\u201d said Dr. Michael Smith, Policy Fellow and a professor of political science at Emporia State University.

\u201cThis likely reflects the fact that voters are already familiar with him, since he ran in 2016,\u201d said Smith. \u201cPete Buttigieg has the lowest positive and negative, both likely reflecting that many voters are still not very familiar with him. Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren fall somewhere in between.\u201d

Two perennial questions on the survey sought the respondents\u2019 attitudes toward Kansas as a place to live and on whether the state is on the right or wrong track.

In 2019, the results are 53.7 who see the state as a \u201cvery good\u201d or \u201cexcellent\u201d place to live, and only 1.5 percent who found that the state is a \u201cpoor\u201d or \u201cvery poor\u201d place to live.

The right-track-wrong-track ratio is 77.4 percent right, 22.6 percent wrong.
\u00a0
The full report can be found at www.fhsu.edu\/docking\/Kansas-Speaks<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS Kansas Speaks Fall 2019, a survey on issues of importance and on the attitudes of Kansans about their state, was released today… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11722],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-releases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51615,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51614\/revisions\/51615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}