The Others
The University of Arkansas' Annual Poll showed some interesting data for the four congressional districts.
Generally speaking, do you usually think of yourself as a Republican, a Democrat, an Independent, or what?
• Republican 20% 23% 30% 21%
• Democrat 38% 35% 30% 36%
• independent 34% 33% 32% 32%
• other 6% 7% 6% 9%
• don’t know/refused 3% 3% 2% 2%
What surprised me most about the data was the amount of people who appear to belong to some "minor" party. Not an "independent" mind you, that was listed as a separate choice, and independents usually had about 33% of the total. I am talking about the "other" column which represents those who identify themselves as neither Republican, Democrat, or Independent, and did in fact give a response. That response could only be some other party such as the Libertarian, Constitution, or Green party.
In the 4th district, those who identified themselves as "other" party were nine percent of the vote, versus 21% who ID as Republican and 36% who self-ID as Democrat. That is to say that members of "other" parties, even in a poll where their party was not listed by name, were equal in number to almost one half the total of those who ID as Republicans and even equal to one fourth the number who ID as Democrats in this heavily Democratic district.
The 3rd Congressional district broke out as evenly split between Democrats and Republicans at 30% each. Independents took 32% of the total and "other" political party took 6%. That is to say that in the 3rd CD members of "other" parties are equal in number to one-fifth of either the Democrat or Republican parties. Does that surprise you? It does me. I would have thought that voter ID for other parties combined would be outnumbered by Republicans 30-1 and by Democrats 50-1. It turns out that the real total is more like 4 or 5 to one.
Mark my words: the Republicrats can't keep forcing all political expression to pass through their two private clubs much longer. We are going to see a new movement arise or we will see a police state that oppresses "unauthorized" political expression.
Generally speaking, do you usually think of yourself as a Republican, a Democrat, an Independent, or what?
• Republican 20% 23% 30% 21%
• Democrat 38% 35% 30% 36%
• independent 34% 33% 32% 32%
• other 6% 7% 6% 9%
• don’t know/refused 3% 3% 2% 2%
What surprised me most about the data was the amount of people who appear to belong to some "minor" party. Not an "independent" mind you, that was listed as a separate choice, and independents usually had about 33% of the total. I am talking about the "other" column which represents those who identify themselves as neither Republican, Democrat, or Independent, and did in fact give a response. That response could only be some other party such as the Libertarian, Constitution, or Green party.
In the 4th district, those who identified themselves as "other" party were nine percent of the vote, versus 21% who ID as Republican and 36% who self-ID as Democrat. That is to say that members of "other" parties, even in a poll where their party was not listed by name, were equal in number to almost one half the total of those who ID as Republicans and even equal to one fourth the number who ID as Democrats in this heavily Democratic district.
The 3rd Congressional district broke out as evenly split between Democrats and Republicans at 30% each. Independents took 32% of the total and "other" political party took 6%. That is to say that in the 3rd CD members of "other" parties are equal in number to one-fifth of either the Democrat or Republican parties. Does that surprise you? It does me. I would have thought that voter ID for other parties combined would be outnumbered by Republicans 30-1 and by Democrats 50-1. It turns out that the real total is more like 4 or 5 to one.
Mark my words: the Republicrats can't keep forcing all political expression to pass through their two private clubs much longer. We are going to see a new movement arise or we will see a police state that oppresses "unauthorized" political expression.
posted by Mark Moore (Moderator) at Saturday, October 25, 2008
3 Comments:
Mr. Moore,
How about doing an Arkansas Watch Voters Guide on the Ballot Issues:
-Referred Question No. 1
-Proposed Constitutional Amendment No. 1
-Proposed Constitutional Amendment No. 2
-Proposed Constitutional Amendment No. 3
-Proposed Initiative Act No. 1
My 2 cents: No on everything but the Initiated Act-- yes on that (the adoption issue).
The same poll question on "other" party varied from 0-5% from 1999-2003, with the average value 3.2%. It seems the number has doubled since that time.
Post a Comment
<< Home