Dealing With Corruption in Federal Government a Major Goal

Jobs and reducing the federal deficit has been on the top of voters’ list of to-dos for the presidential candidates for a year.  But suddenly in Gallup’s latest open-ended question on priorities for the next president is “reducing corruption in the federal government.”

Is that Solyndra, Fast and Furious, GSA, Congressman Rangel or Citizens United?  It’s not clear, but the issue appears to be affecting both candidates’ advocates.

Partisans of both candidates rated jobs and corruption.  Mitt Romney’s supporters were more likely to prioritize the budget deficit much higher than President Obama’s supporters.

Obama’s supporters rated making health care affordable (50% “extremely important”) and improving public schools (48%) as top priorities.  Romney’s advocates did not put those items in the top five (21% health care, 27% public schools).