Independent voters, the key to President Barack Obama’s election, now think that the influence of special interests in Washington has increased under Obama, according to a new poll by Democrat pollster Stan Greenberg. Chuck Raasch, our colleague in Gannett’s Washington bureau, offers this report on the survey: ‘There is a sense that special interests have gained power as the change process has moved forward in Washington,’ Greenberg said. The Feb. 2-4 survey of 805 likely voters, which Greenberg did for a coalition of progressive groups in favor of a congressional bill limiting donations, showed that all voters favored such a move, 62-31 percent. However, the Fair Elections Now Act faces an uphill battle in Congress. It would provide federal matches for candidates who agree to limit donations to $100. According to Greenberg and Republican strategist Mark McKinnon, 28 percent of voters say they are more likely to support a member of Congress who supports the Fair Elections bill, while 13 percent said they were less likely. Obama had campaigned against special interests in 2008. McKinnon noted that it was a winning issue even among Republicans. The Supreme Court recently overturned decades of election law by […]