Company News · January 14, 2008
Frank Rich of the New York Times quotes Edison Exit Polls on “Change” in New Hampshire Primaries
By Edison Research
From Frank Rich’s column in last Saturday’s New York Times:
The exit poll of those who voted on Tuesday — not to be confused with the pre-primary polls that misfired — showed that Democrats are still looking for change (54 percent) over experience (19 percent) and that they overwhelmingly associate Mr. Obama with the former and Mrs. Clinton with the latter. By change, they don’t mean merely a tuneup.
Interestingly, though the overall percentage of voters wanting “Change” increased from Iowa to New Hampshire, this small increase was driven entirely by Independent voters. In fact, the percentage of persons identifying themselves as Democrats that indicated “Change” was the most important issue to them in selecting a candidate stayed statistically flat, with 52% of Iowa Democrats favoring “Change,” compared to 50% of New Hampshire Democrats. Independents, however, rose from 53% favoring change in Iowa to 62% in New Hampshire. As has been noted in this space and elsewhere, the story of the primary season continues to be turnout–will the Independents (and Democrats) who are most desirous of change come out and vote with their feet? We’ll have another piece of this puzzle for you this weekend, in Nevada.
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From Frank Rich’s column in last Saturday’s New York Times:
The exit poll of those who voted on Tuesday — not to be confused with the pre-primary polls that misfired — showed that Democrats are still looking for change (54 percent) over experience (19 percent) and that they overwhelmingly associate Mr. Obama with the former and Mrs. Clinton with the latter. By change, they don’t mean merely a tuneup.
Interestingly, though the overall percentage of voters wanting “Change” increased from Iowa to New Hampshire, this small increase was driven entirely by Independent voters. In fact, the percentage of persons identifying themselves as Democrats that indicated “Change” was the most important issue to them in selecting a candidate stayed statistically flat, with 52% of Iowa Democrats favoring “Change,” compared to 50% of New Hampshire Democrats. Independents, however, rose from 53% favoring change in Iowa to 62% in New Hampshire. As has been noted in this space and elsewhere, the story of the primary season continues to be turnout–will the Independents (and Democrats) who are most desirous of change come out and vote with their feet? We’ll have another piece of this puzzle for you this weekend, in Nevada.