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Poll: Independents Back Dems by 2-to-1
Independent voters — those with no party affiliation — favor Democrats by a margin of 2-to-1 in the November elections, a new poll shows. According to a Washington Post-ABC News survey, Democrats are winning the battle for the votes of independent voters and want to see them capture control of the House of Representatives. Independents cite disillusionment with the Iraq war as the primary reason for voter discontent with the GOP and the Bush administration. Independents favor Democrats over Republicans by 76 percent to 21 percent on the Iraq war issue, according to the poll. Only a third said the Iraq war is worth fighting, while a month before the 2004 election, independents were almost evenly split on that same question. The Post recalled that two weeks ago, 26 percent of those surveyed cited the war as the single most important issue determining their vote in November, compared with 23 percent who cited the economy and 14 percent who said it was terrorism. In the new poll, 27 percent said Iraq, 19 percent cited the economy, and 14 percent said terrorism.
How crucial a role independents will play in the coming election, the Post claims, is demonstrated by the fact that Democrats and Republicans are basically united behind candidates of their own parties with 95 percent of Democrats saying they will support Democratic candidates for the House. A slightly fewer percentage of Republicans, 88 percent, said they plan to vote for their party's candidates.
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Independents questioned in the The Post-ABC News poll plan to support Democratic candidates over Republicans by roughly 2-to-1 — 59 percent to 31 percent — which the Post says is the largest margin in any Post-ABC News poll this year. Forty-five percent told the pollsters that it would be good if Democrats recaptured the House majority, while 10 percent said it would not be. The rest said it would not matter. Other findings:
With voter turnout seen as the key to this election, the Post notes that both parties are pulling out all stops to get their supporters to the polls on Nov. 7. Twenty-nine percent of registered voters said they had been contacted by one party or the other for their votes, and three in 10 of those said they had been contacted by advocates for both parties. Republicans, however, appear to be doing a better job of contacting independents. In the poll, 45 percent of those independents who said they had been contacted said they were urged to vote for Republicans, while 17 percent said they were urged to vote for Democrats. The rest told the pollsters they were contacted by both sides.
Editor's note:
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