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Exit polls: Bush's voter support more intense than Gore's
By Will Lester, Associated Press, 03/14/00 WASHINGTON -- George W. Bush gets more intense support from Southern voters who turned out in Tuesday's GOP primaries than Al Gore gets on the Democratic side, and Bush appears to face less of a threat of crossover Southern voters in November, according to exit polls.
The exit polls conducted by Voter News Service, a consortium of the TV networks and The Associated Press, also gave a glimpse of voter attitudes in the candidates' home states. In Texas, half the Republicans as well as half the Democrats said Bush was more conservative as a presidential candidate than he was in 1998, when he won a landslide re-election as governor. "I think he would make a great president," said Fritzie Faulkner, a 67-year-old resident of Lubbock, who wasn't troubled by conservatism. "He's got conservative views and I think you can trust him." Many in Texas, however, were not convinced by Bush's claims that he has successfully reformed education in Texas. About four in 10 voters in the Texas GOP primary said the state has had no significant school reforms in the past six years, and more than six in 10 voters in the Democratic primary felt that way. In Tennessee, voters in the Republican primary showed a clear dislike of native son Gore: only one in 20 among GOP voters said they would vote for Gore in November, and more than four in five had an unfavorable opinion of their one-time senator. Republicans in several of Tuesday's primary states expect the Gore campaign, which has been heartened by recent national polls showing the presidential race is close, to make a determined effort to carve several Southern states away from the Republicans in November. The South, which has been tilting toward the GOP over the past two decades, has been Bush's most dependable region in national polls to this point. Exit polls suggest Gore has plenty of work to do in the region to compete effectively with Bush. One in six voters in the Democratic primaries say they would back Bush in November, while one in 20 voters in the Republican primaries say they would back Gore. Marvin Margo, a Democrat from Oklahoma City, said he "voted against Gore" in the Democratic primary. "I'm for Bush but I couldn't vote for Bush because I'm a registered Democrat," he said, referring to the closed GOP primary that only allowed party members to cast ballots. But Margo said he would vote for Bush in November. One of 10 voters in the GOP primaries said they have a favorable view of Gore, while more than one in five voters in the Democratic primary had a favorable view of Bush. The exit polls were conducted at selected precincts in the states of Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. The poll of 3,572 voters in the GOP primaries had an error margin of plus or minus 2 percentage points and the poll of 2,855 voters in the Democratic primaries had an error margin of plus or minus 2.5 points. Voters in the Democratic primaries who said they would vote for Bush tended to be more conservative, white, younger, Bradley supporters and people who dislike President Clinton personally. Voters in the GOP primaries who said they would vote for Gore tended to be lower income, self-described liberals, younger, and Hispanic. Bush will rely heavily in Florida on the support of his brother Jeb, the governor, who is popular among the GOP voters, with more than four of five viewing him favorably. Jeb Bush is less popular among Democratic voters, with seven of 10 viewing him unfavorably. Bush still faces a challenge with independent voters, as he did throughout the primary season. Six of 10 independents who voted in the Democratic primary had an unfavorable view of him, while a fifth of the independents in the GOP primary had an unfavorable view. Gore has a tougher time than Bush with independents in Republican primaries in the South, with four of five giving him an unfavorable rating. While the voters who participated may have felt strongly about candidates, some election workers complained interest in the Southern primaries was low because the party nominations were all but settled. "This is the slowest it's ever been," said Raymond Portis, a Democratic poll worker at a precinct in downtown Jackson, Miss. |
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