Just weeks before the election, politics are dampening the mood of wealthy investors.

In a survey by Spectrem Group, a Chicago-based researcher, affluent investors with more than $500,000 named the political climate as their chief financial concern.

Twenty six percent of Spectrem’s affluent respondents said the political climate was the most serious threat to achieving their household’s current financial goals. Spectrem says that the last time its surveys measured this much political anxiety was in September 2010, right before the mid-term elections that swept Tea Party candidates into office.

Affluent respondents also named the economy, market conditions, inflation fears and international relations as financial threats.

When Spectrem last asked about the political climate in June 2016, 15 percent of affluent investors named it as their No. 1 financial threat.

Investors with more than $1 million in net worth also named the political climate as the most serious threat to their household’s financial goals.

Political pessimism dropped the Spectrem Millionaire Investor Confidence Index to 5 points, down from 12 points in August 2016 and from 14 points in September 2015. Spectrem measures investor confidence on a scale between -51, the most bearish, to 51, the most bullish.

Affluent investors’ confidence also dropped in September to 4 points from 7 points in August 2016 and from 6 points in September 15.

Heading into the elections, Democrats are exhibiting greater confidence in the economy than independents or Republicans. Democrats responded that they are bullish, reporting an average confidence in the economy of nearly 33 points. Republicans are mildly bearish, with an average confidence of almost -29 points, and independents are neutral at 4 points.

One-third of the affluent respondents, 33 percent, told Spectrem they intended to stay on the investment sidelines altogether through the next month, an increase of 11 percentage points from the August survey.

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