What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls - Week Ending April 23, 2016

Next Tuesday is likely to tell the tale after this week’s New York primaries put Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump back on track.

The billionaire businessman has rebounded in our latest Trump Change survey of likely Republican voters after a month-long slump prompted by campaign gaffes, $70 million in anti-Trump ads and a lopsided primary loss in Wisconsin.

Even before her big win in New York after losing seven straight primaries to Bernie Sanders, Clinton was seen by more Democratic voters than ever as their party’s eventual nominee. 

All of this Tuesday’s primaries -- in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware and Rhode Island -- appear much friendlier to the front-runners than to their rivals. In short, Trump vs. Clinton looks like the presidential matchup we’ve been dealt for the fall. 

The surprising level of support for Trump and Sanders suggests voters in the two major parties are getting more extreme in their thinking than their respective party leaders. A sizable number of voters agree.

Still, voters remain more conservative on money issues than on those that pertain to social matters, although Democrats and Republicans also continue to disagree.

But voters in both parties think too many politicians are for sale.

That helps explain why Sanders’ strong criticism of the government’s treatment of Wall Street resonates with most Americans who remain sour and cynical about the federal bank bailouts.

An overwhelming majority believe the wealthiest donors and special interest groups have too much influence over government decisions. Most also say these wealthy interests have too much influence over elections. 

For all of the talk about Trump and Sanders potentially running as third-party candidates, however, most voters aren’t betting on a third-party candidate taking the White House anytime soon.

Just 24% think the country is headed in the right direction. That’s a weekly low for this year and matches the low for all of last year.

The U.S. Supreme Court this week heard a challenge by 26 states to President Obama’s plan protecting up to five million illegal immigrants from deportation. Most voters have opposed Obama’s amnesty plan right from the start. 

A major national insurer’s announcement that it is cutting back its involvement due to big financial losses is the latest problem besetting Obamacare. Few voters want to leave the health care law as is, even though more than ever say they have benefited from it.

Secretary of State John Kerry and representatives of numerous other countries signed an anti-global warming treaty yesterday, although implementation remains a long shot in this country due to strong congressional opposition. Most U.S. voters (57%) continue to believe that when it comes to global warming, the government should only do what the president and Congress agree on. 

The president continues to enjoy better than average daily job approval ratings.

In other surveys last week:

-- The U.S. Treasury announced on Wednesday that the portrait of President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill will be replaced by one of anti-slavery activist Harriet Tubman, making her the first black American to ever front a U.S. banknote. So what does America think?

-- Texas Republicans are so unhappy that they will seriously debate whether their state should secede from the union at their upcoming state convention. Nearly one-in-four Americans think states have the right to leave the United States to form an independent country.

-- Movie theater chain AMC recently announced plans to allow text messaging in certain theaters during movie screenings, then quickly reversed its decision after a swift backlash. Most Americans are adamant: No texting during the movie.

-- While most Americans say they’ve donated time or money to clean up the environment, they don’t feel strongly that Earth Day, celebrated Friday, has been all that important in increasing environmental consciousness. 

-- Nearly nine-out-of-10 Americans planned to file their income taxes by last Monday’s Tax Day deadline.

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