ASHINGTON - Hispanics favor Republican George W. Bush over presidential candidates Al Gore and Bill Bradley, a break from a decades-old tradition of supporting Democrats, a poll showed yesterday.
Bush, the Texas governor, received 52 percent of Hispanic support in a hypothetical matchup with Gore, the Democratic vice president, who received 41 percent in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.
In a matchup with Democratic former New Jersey senator Bill Bradley, Bush pulled 44 percent to Bradley's 41 percent, the poll found.
Overall, the poll found, Bush beat Gore 50 percent to 39 percent and beat Bradley 47 percent to 39 percent.
These poll numbers indicate a switch from how Hispanic voters responded in exit polls after presidential elections dating to 1972. That year, 63 percent said they voted for Democrat George McGovern, with 35 percent voting for Republican Richard Nixon.
In the 1996 election, 72 percent of Hispanics said they voted for President Clinton, compared with 21 percent who favored Republican Bob Dole.
But Bush, the son of former president George Bush, has had strong appeal with Hispanics in his state, where he received 49 percent of the Hispanic vote and 69 percent of the overall vote in being reelected last year to a second term.
He speaks Spanish at some official functions.
The poll found Bush won the numbers race regarding respondents' feelings about the candidates, with 50 percent saying they felt somewhat or very positively toward him. That was nearly double the 26 percent who felt somewhat or very negative about Bush.
Forty-two percent felt positive about Bradley, while 10 percent felt negative; 38 percent felt positive about Gore and 35 felt negative; Arizona Republican Senator John McCain drew 34 percent who felt positive with 6 percent negative, and Republican Steve Forbes drew 23 percent positive and 25 percent negative.
The national telephone poll of 2,014 adults had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.
