POLL Finds Clinton Has Support of 63% of LGB Likely Voters (lots of interesting findings here)

jefferson_dem

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Thu Nov-29-07 05:51 PM
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POLL Finds Clinton Has Support of 63% of LGB Likely Voters (lots of interesting findings here)

Edited on Thu Nov-29-07 05:55 PM by jefferson_dem

Hunter Poll Finds Clinton Has Support of 63% of LGB Likely Voters

In the first public, political survey ever conducted by a university-based team of scholars with a nationally representative sample of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGBs) Americans, results released today show that Senator Hillary Clinton has the support of 63 percent of LGB likely voters in the Democratic primaries, followed by Senator Barack Obama with 22 percent and John Edwards with 7 percent. The Hunter College Poll also finds that during the process of �coming out,� LGBs become more liberal and more engaged in the political process than the general population.

�We found a stunning transformation in political views in the LGB community of a magnitude that is virtually unparalleled among social groupings in the U.S. population,� said political science professor Kenneth Sherrill of Hunter College, one of the study�s investigators. The Hunter College Poll was conducted with 768 respondents by Knowledge Networks, Inc. from November 15th through November 26th, 2007.

Other findings include:

� Nine in 10 LGB likely voters will vote in the Democratic primaries and 21 percent say that lesbian and gay rights will be the most important issue influencing their vote in 2008.

� 72 percent of LGB likely voters consider Senator Clinton a supporter of gay rights, with Senator Obama at 52 percent and former Senator Edwards at 41 percent. On the Republican side, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was at 37 percent, followed by Senator John McCain at 13 percent.

�These findings suggest opportunities. Clinton benefits from a high turnout in this very Democratic bloc; her opponents would benefit from making their stated support for gay rights more visible to LGB voters,� said Murray Edelman, a distinguished scholar at Rutgers University�s Eagleton Institute and one of the study�s investigators.

� 33 percent of all respondents say they are �very interested� in politics compared to 22 percent of the Knowledge Networks general population sample. And 36 percent said they became more interested in politics during their �coming out� period.

� LGBs were more likely than the general population to have contacted a government official in the past 12 months (23 percent to 16 percent).

�These levels of civic engagement indicate that gay people can have a bigger influence on public policy than suggested by their relatively small share of the population,� said Patrick J. Egan, an assistant professor at New York University and another of the study�s investigators.

� Asked what gay rights goals are �extremely important,� LGBs chose:

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Favorable/Unfavorable Ratings (n=768)

82/12 Clinton
73/16 Obama
63/16 Edwards
28/15 Kucinich
30/45 McCain
28/55 Giuliani

http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/news/#hunterpoll

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