WP: Independents Favor Democrats Over Republicans

Independents Favor Democrats Over Republicans
Poll Finds Votes Motivated by War Pessimism, Dissatisfation With GOP
By Dan Balz and Jon Cohen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, October 23, 2006

Two weeks before midterm elections, Republicans are losing the battle for independent voters, who now strongly favor Democrats on the major issues facing the country and overwhelmingly prefer to see them take over the House in November, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Independents are poised to play a pivotal role in next month's elections because Democrats and Republicans are basically united behind candidates of their own parties. Ninety-five percent of Democrats say they will support Democratic candidates for the House while slightly fewer (88 percent) Republicans said they plan to vote for their party's candidates.

The independent voters surveyed said they plan to support Democratic candidates over Republicans by roughly 2-to-1 (59 percent to 31 percent), the largest margin in any Post-ABC News poll this year. Forty-five percent said it would be good if Democrats recapture the House majority while just 10 percent said it would not be. The rest said it would not matter.

The poll also found that independents are highly pessimistic because of the Iraq war and the overall state of the country. Just 23 percent said the country is heading in the right direction compared to 75 percent who say things have gotten off track. Only a quarter of independents approve of the job Congress has done this year and only a third believe the Iraq war has been worth fighting.

Independent voters may strongly favor Democrats, but their vote appears motivated more by dissatisfaction with Republicans than by enthusiasm for the opposition party. About half of those independents saying they plan to vote Democratic in their district said they were doing so primarily to vote against the Republican candidate rather than affirmatively for the Democratic candidate. Just 22 percent of independents voting for Democrats are doing so "very enthusiastically."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/23/AR2006102300766.html

seats. Republicans won by about 15% in 1994.

Among those voting primarily on Iraq, Democrats hold a sizeable lead (76 percent to 21 percent) in voting intentions. Democrats also are favored by those who cite health care as their most important issue, while those Americans voting on terrorism or immigration strongly favor the Republicans.

Voters also continue to trust Democrats more than Republicans to deal with the war, as well as the economy and ethics in government. On terrorism, the two parties are at parity.

But independents, the key swing voter group, strongly trust the Democrats on all of those issues by margins ranging from 14 percentage points on terrorism to 23 percentage points on Iraq and North Korea and 26 points on ethics in government.

That last bit is VERY significant.

This is most excellent news.

so favored Democrats over Republicans, I became one this year.

Can't do better than that.

are fairly evenly divided and cancel each other out (well, they did until recently when conservatives started bailing en masse from the GOP).

DUHbya's incompetence and arrogance are finally bearing fruit...spoiled, infested fruit.

Newsprism

I for one appreciate any and all Independents voting for any Democrat in any election.

Yes I am very glad that they see the difference and know it is not in the interest of the United States and its citizenry that these neocons or republicons (cons key word) are acting. I have come to the conclusion that the neocons view the world as not coexisting countries and peoples, but like corporations. They don't agree with a country such as Iraq, no problem. Just do an unfriendly corporate takeover. The citizenry is nothing more than corporate employees to them and are collateral damage in the take over. That makes their ilk very cold and callously dangerous people with 0 compassion or moral consciousness. With that knowledge can these neocons really be the good Christians they claim to be? The undecided voters seem to be deciding these people are not and must go by a 2-1 margin. I am assuming that will ultimately mean democrats will regain some power in the government. Let's not let the people down through inaction by our top leaders. The neocons have damaged these United States at the foundations and much is needed to be done to stop our going in the wrong direction and get our nation back to a good forward direction.:dilemma: :patriot: :patriot: