Chief financial officers overwhelmingly choose Mitt Romney over Barack Obama in the presidential race, according to the latest Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey, taken last month.
Of the 864 CFOs who responded, 67 percent, or 577, selected Romney, while 15 percent, or 130, opted for Obama. Meanwhile, 14 percent, or 124 respondents, were undecided.
“CFOs are generally dissatisfied with the current business environment,” says John Graham, a professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the study’s director.
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“The CFOs’ disenchantment with President Obama appears to be tied to issues related to weak economic growth and substantial uncertainty about the implementation of new governmental policies.”
The executives listed their top business concerns as weak job creation, implementation of the healthcare reform law, the budget deficit, increased regulation, uncertainty about implementation of new regulations and tax policy.
The same survey four years ago showed then-Republican presidential nominee John McCain leading Obama 63 percent to 26 percent, with 10 percent undecided.
Another survey of business people — one conducted among readers of Fortune.com’s daily e-mail newsletter Term Sheet — also shows Romney with a big lead: 58 percent to 38 percent.
That poll drew more than 1,800 responses, with 30 percent coming from private equity workers, 19 percent from entrepreneurs and/or operating executives, 12 percent from bankers, 11 percent from workers in venture capital and 4 percent from lawyers.
“[P]erhaps Obama's admonitions of ‘fat cat bankers’ have hit a bit too close to home,” writes Term Sheet author Dan Primack.
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