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Poll: Economy top issue for LI

An overwhelming majority of LI voters think the economy is the most important issue in the presidential election.

BY MICHAEL AMON | michael.amon@newsday.com

9:49 PM EDT, October 12, 2008

Francine Caruso wants a president who can "fix the economy" and it's not hard to see why. This year, she's lost her job, couldn't sell her Wantagh home, and watched her husband delay retirement as his portfolio lost $30,000 last week in the market plunge.

But Caruso, 48, said she doesn't like what she hears from either Barack Obama or John McCain.

"The way these two are yelling at each other, they sound like children," said Caruso, an administrative assistant who is undecided on whom she will vote for. "They need to stop knocking each other and tell us what they can do for us."

Caruso is among an overwhelming majority of Long Islanders - 63 percent, according to a Newsday poll - for whom the economy is the single most important issue in the upcoming presidential election. The next most important issues were the Iraq War and terrorism, tied at 8 percent apiece.

The poll surveyed 761 likely Long Island voters from Oct. 1 to Oct. 7. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

Long Islanders appear more worried about pocketbook issues than most Americans, with recent national polls showing economic concerns are the top issue of 49 to 57 percent of the country.

That makes sense, experts say. Long Islanders - hit hard by the mortgage crisis and many being baby boomers watching their retirement accounts - are tense, said Martin Cantor, director of the Dowling College Long Island Economic and Social Policy Institute.

"We are overtaxed, overexpensed and wages are stagnant," Cantor said. "We have more families living on the edge, two-wage earners not being able to make ends meet."

The Newsday poll showed that Long Islanders are leaning heavily toward Obama by a 17 percent margin, with another 17 percent unsure or refusing to answer. Of those most concerned about the economy, 53 percent favored Obama and 30 percent favored McCain.

Obama says he will jump-start the economy with a middle-class tax cut, a windfall oil profits rebate, and 5 million new alternative energy jobs. McCain says he will extend President Bush's 2001 tax cuts, promote free trade and use part of the $700 billion financial sector bailout to refinance homeowners' mortgages.

One Obama supporter is Pat Glass, 68, of East Rockaway, a registered independent who said she's "financially a Republican but morally a Democrat."

Glass, a retired school teacher, and her husband, Stuart, a pharmacist, cut back on travel and dining out plans as they watched their stock value drop 40 percent last week.

"It's scary to watch what you've worked for all of these years just vanish," she said.

Glass said Obama projects a calm leadership style that she believes could settle the turbulent markets. McCain, she said, "just scares me to death."

"I don't think he understands the middle class, what their needs are and how they're trying to survive every day," she said.

Camille Pikowsky, a registered Republican living on a fixed income of Social Security payments and her husband's pension, also lists the economy as her top worry. She said gas, utilities and food squeeze her budget every month.

"Just going to the grocery is an experience in itself these days, seeing how ridiculously expensive the fruits and vegetables are," said Pikowsky, 68, of North Massapequa.

She said she favored McCain, though not for his economic plan. "I just can't see Obama doing anything good," Pikowsky said. "I don't think either one of them really has an answer."

Though Long Islanders are more concerned about pocketbook issues than other Americans, the local economy, so far, is faring better than much of the country. Long Island's economic indicators - a 5.2 percent unemployment rate, 5.4 percent inflation, slow but measurable job growth and a 5 to 10 percent decline in home values - are better than the national averages.

"The tsunami has not yet hit Long Island, but I think things are going to get worse before they get better," said Pearl Kamer, the chief economist for the Long Island Association, a local business advocacy group.

The nation's stifled credit channels will soon affect local businesses' ability to make payroll, leading to layoffs, she said. And consumers will have trouble obtaining credit.

"That means Long Islanders won't buy cars or furniture or other big-ticket items they normally buy," Kamer said.

Caruso already can't make such purchases.

She hopes Congress extends unemployment benefits again this year. As she watches the presidential debate Wednesday night at Hofstra University, Caruso will be listening for McCain and Obama to mention that issue.

Her expectations are low: "These choices are lousy."