Readers not better off four years later

Fifty-eight percent — 192 out of a 332 total respondents — said they were not better off than they were four years ago in response to InMaricopa.com’s weekly poll question.

A hundred readers — 30 percent of the total — said they were better off and 12 percent, or 40 respondents, said they were not.

The question was first asked by President Ronald Reagan in a famous speech on the eve of Election Day in 1980. 

It has since been resurrected by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign as a major plank in the Republican’s platform in his bid for president.

Romney is running against President Barak Obama in a closely contested race likely to be decided in a handful of swing states. For more about the role of swing states in this election, click here.