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Gloomy Broker Outlook: Business Brokers in Newport Beach wanted to find out small-business owners’ views of the economy. Of 2,600 U.S. brokers surveyed, the prognosis was gloomiest in the West.

VR found that 28% of respondents nationally said their business is better than usual, 34% said it is worse and 38% said it is about the same.

But in the western states, the view was a lot darker. Just 20% said business is better, 45% said it is worse and 35% called it about the same.

Looking ahead, respondents in the West were also gloomier than elsewhere. Just 34% said things are improving. (The figure is 44% nationally.)

In the West, 30% said things are getting worse; the national figure was just 19%. Those who thought things would stay the same were 36% of westerners surveyed and 37% of the total.

All this discontent, respondents said, may translate into action come November. Forty-three percent of westerners said they will change parties to vote in the presidential election; nationally, the figure was 36%.

Thirty-one percent of westerners said they would change their usual vote from Republican to Democrat this year; 4% said they would change from Democrat to Republican.