Poll Finds Large Majority Favors Campaign Finance Reform to Ban Soft Money

For Immediate Release

Contact: Nancy Wong, Harris Interactive

Tel: 585-214-7316 or 585-415-8931

Email: nwong@harrisinteractive.com

Rochester, NY (March 13, 2002) -- While most people believe that Enron is an important political issue, the Democrats have not succeeded in turning this to their political advantage. The main fallout, as far as public opinion is concerned, is that a large majority favors, and very few people oppose, campaign finance reform; and a substantial plurality favors a new federal government agency to regulate accounting firms.

Furthermore, Vice President Dick Cheney may be relieved to learn that only a modest plurality believes that his refusal to release the names of the people he met with to develop the administration's energy policy means that he has something to hide. More than a third of the public say they just don't know.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll , a nationwide study conducted by Harris InteractiveSM of 2,031 adults surveyed online between February 21 and 27.

The findings include:

Almost everyone (97%) says they have seen, heard or read about the collapse of Enron.

While a substantial 39% of adults believes that Enron is mainly a business and financial issue, a modest 53% majority believes it is also an important political issue.

Most people believe that the Enron scandal has hurt both political parties equally (41%) or neither (20%). Only 18% think it mainly damages the Republicans and 2% think it mainly damages the Democrats.

So why is it a political issue? Following widespread media coverage of the Enron scandal, a 65% to 12% majority favors campaign finance reform to ban "soft money" and a 48% to 27% plurality now favors a new federal government regulatory agency to oversee accounting firms.

Only 38% of the public believe that Dick Cheney's refusal to name the people he met with while developing the administration's energy policy "means that he has something to hide." The rest either don't know (38%), or believe he has nothing to hide (24%).

Humphrey Taylor is the chairman of The Harris Poll(R) , Harris Interactive.

For access to the complete data tables for this survey, please go to:
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=289

To become a member of the Harris Poll Online, and be invited to participate
in future online surveys, visit www.harrispollonline.com

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Methodology

The Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between February 21 and 27, 2002, among a nationwide cross section of 2,031 adults. Figures for age, sex, race, education and number of adults in the household were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. "Propensity score" weighting was also used to adjust for respondents propensity to be online.

In theory, with a probability sample of this size, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the results have a statistical precision of plus or minus 3 percentage points of what they would be if the entire adult population had been polled with complete accuracy.

These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

About Harris InteractiveSM

Harris Interactive (Nasdaq: HPOL) is a worldwide market research and consulting firm, best known for The Harris Poll and its pioneering use of the Internet to conduct scientifically accurate market research.

Strengthened by its recent merger with Total Research Corporation, the Company now combines the power of technology with international expertise in predictive, custom, strategic research. Headquartered in the United States, with offices in the United Kingdom, Japan and a global network of local market and opinion research firms, the Company conducts international research with fluency in multiple languages. For more information about Harris Interactive, visit www.harrisinteractive.com

• 106 Money & Politics
• 185 Corruption