Before the Hillary Clinton campaign for president officially launched, they poll-tested a carbon tax. The poll was conducted in February, 2015 by John Anzalone for the campaign.
Anzalone’s poll respondents started with strong support for a carbon tax (58 in favor-35 opposed, +23 points), but the support collapsed to plus one (48-47) when exposed to his arguments for and against.
However, Anzalone’s purported “support” argument mentioned the wildly unpopular George Bush and “major CEOs” as supporters of a carbon tax. Almost like it was designed to fail:
It then became conventional wisdom within the campaign that a carbon tax would be “lethal in the general” election. In June, 2015, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) proposed a carbon tax and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that Clinton might support it. Campaign advisor Brian Fallon nervously emailed the rest of the campaign team, “is there any chance we go near such a proposal or can we nip this in the bud tonight?”
Clinton advisor Robby Mook responded that such a proposal would be “lethal” but also cautioned to avoid attacking a carbon tax during the primary against Bernie Sanders.
I don’t recall any polling to guide us, but I’d be a bit nervous about rushing to say we’d never support such a tax. Bernie I assume DOES support such a tax and it could be fodder for him if we say unequivocally now that we don’t support one.
To be clear: it’s lethal in the general, so I don’t want to support one. But don’t want to give bernie contrast right now. So if there’s a way to re-state principles and say she’ll announce something in the next few weeks, that would be great.