GlobeSt.com Poll Pegs Romney as Best Candidate

WASHINGTON, DC-In its most recently completed Quick Poll, GlobeSt.com asked its readers which US presidential candidate would be safest their business. By a hefty margin, 64% of the 930 respondents chose the expected Republican nominee, Mitt Romney.

President Barack Obama garnered 27% of the vote. The other two choices “I am writing someone else in” and “I won’t vote—lousy choices” attracted 4% and 5% of the responses, respectively.

The clear orientation to the Republican party is hardly a surprise to anyone with even a passing acquaintance to the commercial real estate industry. The way the industry views its key issues--the tax characterization of carried interest and taxes in general; development policies and priorities; financial regulations, or lack thereof, to name a few—tend to align with how the Republican Party views them as well.

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Just as important to voters is the rhetoric from politicians, David Johnson, principal of the political and PR consultancy Strategic Vision, tells GlobeSt.com. And that, he says, has been particularly virulent since the Great Recession.

It is one thing to hear people and general protesters, such as the Occupy Wall Street movement, deride businesses and financiers, he says. “It’s quite another when that same vocabulary comes out of the mouths of politicians.” It is not that Democrats have been particularly outspoken in anti-business sentiment, he adds. “But the perception is there.”

Democrats also fail to connect with players in the commercial real estate industry on a personal basis, Johnson adds, which is something that the community notices. “Executives might get calls from Democratic Congress people when it comes time to solicit campaign donations. But they notably don’t reach out for their opinions or other activities.”

There are exceptions, he says, but one has to reach fairly far back to find them. “When Hillary Clinton was running for the Senate she had some big commercial real estate donors on board and she got them because she reached out to them personally,” he says.