A higher percentage of conservatives in North Carolina identify as Democrats than moderates do as Republicans. As long as that's the case it's going to be very hard for the GOP to turn around its recent losing streak at the polls in the state.
Over the course of all our North Carolina polling so far in 2009 55% of moderates have identified as Democrats, with 20% Republicans, and 25% independents.
Among conservatives 61% are Republicans, 26% are Democrats, and 13% are independents.
Democrats are doing a better job of appealing to voters on the right side of the spectrum than Republicans are doing of attracting folks in the middle. It's pretty hard for the GOP to construct an electoral majority as long as that's the case. Nevertheless Republicans in both Washington and Raleigh this year have seemed more fixated on pleasing the far right than pursuing an agenda that would better help them reach out to the 80% of moderates who currently don't identify with their party.
Among liberals it's no surprise that 87% are Democrats, 8% are independents, and 5% are Republicans.
Yowzza!
ReplyDelete"Nevertheless Republicans in both Washington and Raleigh this year have seemed more fixated on pleasing the far right than pursuing an agenda that would better help them reach out to the 80% of moderates who currently don't identify with their party."
Now, I've heard others here be criticized for accusing PPP as partisan. But whether the actual polling itself is partisan or not, this comment makes it quite clear that this is not a purely objective analysis website. I'm not saying you put yourself out there to be such, but I find it peculiar that you've never fessed up to the leanings in your analysis.
And sadly, although I feel your polling has been nonpartisan in the past, comments like the one above do put a damper on that belief. I read a lot of polling news, so I could be wrong, but I don't believe PPP has ever admitted to being a left-leaning analysis-based polling organization. But are you at least willing to admit it when being called-out on it?
We're not hiding anything from anyone. We're identified as a Democratic polling company almost every time we appear in the press, there is a client list on our website that is composed exclusively of Democrats, etc. We are most certainly a Democratic polling company.
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