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MTSU Poll State Politics Report, Spring 2010
Tennesseans: What? There’s a
governor’s race going on? Tennesseans haven’t done much thinking
yet about whom they want moving into the governor’s mansion after this
November’s election. Asked to name as many of the current
gubernatorial candidates as they can recall, nearly three-fourths (73 percent)
of the state’s adults can’t come up with a single one. When the candidates are
named one at a time, none is recognized by a majority of the state’s residents,
and none has more than 12 percent support. Republican Knoxville Mayor Bill
Haslam’s television advertising appears to be paying dividends, though. He
leads in visibility, coming to mind for 19 percent of Tennesseans. U.S. Rep.
Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., follows, coming to mind for 10 percent of Tennesseans. (Contact Ken Blake, 615.210.6187)
Tea Party has high profile, moderate favorability and low
membership in the state. More
Tennesseans have heard about the Tea Party movement than favor it, and more
favor it than say they’ve joined it. Twenty-nine percent of Tennesseans hold a
favorable opinion of the Tea Party movement, and 9 percent identify themselves
as members. Meanwhile, 19 percent hold unfavorable views of the movement, 32
percent indicate they have heard of the movement but have no opinion about it,
and 19 percent have never heard of the movement. Tennesseans tend to
overestimate the proportion of state residents who belong to the movement.
Also, those who support the movement and those who claim membership in it
cluster at the right end of the state’s political spectrum. (Contact Ken Blake, 615.210.6187)
Bredesen still popular heading into final year as
governor. Gov.
Phil Bredesen is heading out of office with the same majority, broad-based
support he has enjoyed for most of his two terms as governor. Fifty-two percent
of Tennesseans say they approve of the job the governor is doing, a figure
identical to where he stood last spring and down slightly, although within the
poll’s error margin, compared to his 56 percent approval rating in this past
fall’s MTSU Poll. (Contact Ken Blake, 615.210.6187)
Approval of state Legislature low but holding steady. Approval of Tennessee’s Legislature
remains low but more or less steady, registering at 36 percent compared to 38
percent in the fall. Thirty-two percent disapprove of the Legislature, and 30
percent don’t know or give no answer. Opinions about who should control the
Legislature also divide roughly into thirds. Twenty-nine percent of Tennesseans
want Democrats in control, while 35 percent want Republicans in control, and
another 35 percent don’t care who is in control. (Contact Ken Blake, 615.210.6187)
Tennesseans: What? There’s a
governor’s race going on?
(Contact
Ken Blake, 615.210.6187)
Tennesseans haven’t done much thinking
yet about whom they want moving into the governor’s mansion after this
November’s election.
Asked to name as many of the current
gubernatorial candidates as they can recall, nearly three-fourths (73 percent) of
the state’s adults can’t come up with even one.
Even when the candidates are named one
at a time, none is recognized by a majority of the state’s residents, and none
has more than 12 percent support.
A solid majority (57 percent) of
Tennesseans say they currently don’t care whether the new governor is a
Democrat or a Republican. Only 52 percent of Democrats express a preference for
a Democratic governor, the same percentage of Republicans who express a
preference for a Republican governor. Independents are the most likely to
express no preference (72 percent).
Republican Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam,
who has been advertising heavily on television, appears to be the best known
candidate. He comes to mind for 19 percent of Tennesseans. U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp,
R-Tenn., follows, coming to mind for 10 percent of Tennesseans.
The remaining candidates – including state
Senate Minority Leader Jim Kyle, D-Memphis, who quit the race at about the time
the poll concluded – are recalled by 4 percent or fewer of the state’s adults.
The 12 percent approval rating belongs
to Haslam, but the difference between his approval rating and the next highest,
Wamp’s 10 percent, is within the poll’s error margin, meaning a statistical tie
betweenthe two. The table below presents the breakdown for each of the leading
candidates at the time of the poll.
Table 1:
Attitudes toward Tennessee candidates for governor, February 2010
|
Gibbons |
Haslam |
Kyle |
McMillan |
McWherter |
Ramsey |
Wamp |
|
|
Support |
4% |
12% |
2% |
3% |
6% |
5% |
10% |
|
Oppose |
3% |
5% |
5% |
4% |
6% |
6% |
10% |
|
Never heard of |
64% |
55% |
69% |
67% |
53% |
58% |
52% |
|
Heard of, but no
opinion |
26% |
25% |
20% |
23% |
31% |
27% |
25% |
|
Refused |
4% |
4% |
4% |
3% |
4% |
4% |
4% |
Frequent newspaper readers, especially
those who are well educated and male, do the best when quizzed. But even this
group can name an average of just one candidate.
Perhaps because of Haslam’s television
advertising campaign, Tennesseans who watch television news at least four times
a week are significantly more likely to be able to name Haslam than are those
who watch less often.
Tea
Party has high profile, moderate favorability and low membership in the state
(Contact Ken Blake,
615.210.6187)
More Tennesseans have heard about the
Tea Party movement than favor it, and more favor it than say they’ve joined it.
Twenty-nine percent of Tennesseans
hold a favorable opinion of the Tea Party movement, and 9 percent identify
themselves as members.
Meanwhile, 19 percent hold unfavorable
views of the movement, 32 percent indicate they have heard of the movement but
have no opinion about it, and 19 percent have never heard of the movement. The
rest give no answer.
In addition to the 19 percent of
Tennesseans who have never heard of the movement, 30 percent say they’ve heard
or read “a lot” about the movement, 33 percent respond with “some,” and 16
percent answer “not much.” The rest give no answer.
State residents tend to overestimate
the movement’s membership, guessing, on average, that 26 percent of Tennesseans
presently identify themselves as members of the movement, almost three times as
many as the 9 percent who self-identified in response to the MTSU poll.
Among [JR1] the 91 percent of Tennesseans who do
not presently identify themselves as Tea Party members, 3 percent say they are
“very likely” and 11 percent “somewhat likely” to join the Tea Party movement
during the next 12 months. Twenty-one percent say they are “not too likely” to
join in the next 12 months, and 48 percent say they are “not at all likely” to
join. The rest don’t know or give no answer.
Tea Party members cluster at the right
end of the state’s political spectrum. Among those who describe themselves as
politically “far right” and also among those call themselves “conservative,” 22
percent say they are members of the movement. By contrast, among those who
identify as “middle of the road” and also among those who identify as
“liberal,” only 1 percent say they are members. Those even further left warm
back up to the movement somewhat, with 10 percent claiming membership in the
movement.
The distribution of favorable opinions
about the Tea Party movement follows a similar pattern. Nearly two-thirds (65
percent) of both “conservative” and “far right” Tennesseans approve of the
movement, a figure that climbs to 84 percent among those who prefer Fox News
over any other network news outlet. For comparison, a 16 percent favorability
rating is the norm anywhere from “middle of the road” to the left end of the
political spectrum.
The main difference evident as one
moves from “middle of the road” to “far left” is a shift from a prevailing
indecision about the movement among those ranging from “middle of the road” to
“liberal” to a prevailing disapproval among those ranging from “liberal” to
“far left.”
Overall in Tennessee, about 5 percent
of adults identify as “far right,” 33 percent as “conservative,” 40 percent as
“middle of the road,” 11 percent as “liberal,” and 3 percent as “far left.” The
rest aren’t sure or give no answer.
Looking purely at demographics,
Tennesseans who view the movement favorably are more likely to be white than
minority and, among whites, more likely to be both religiously conservative and
male.[JR2]
Bredesen
still popular heading into final year as governor
(Contact Ken Blake,
615.210.6187)
Gov. Phil Bredesen is heading out of
office with the same majority, broad-based support he has enjoyed for most of
his two terms as governor.
Fifty-two percent of Tennesseans say
they approve of the job the governor is doing, a figure identical to where he
stood last spring and down slightly, although within the poll’s error margin, compared
to his 56 percent approval rating in this past fall’s MTSU Poll. Twenty percent
disapprove of the governor, and the rest don’t know or give no answer.
Not surprisingly, 60 percent of strong
Democrats approve of the Democratic Bredesen. But so do 51 percent of
moderates, whether Democratic or Republican, along with a 46 percent plurality
of strong Republicans.
Approval
of state Legislature low but holding steady
(Contact Ken Blake,
615.210.6187)
Approval of Tennessee’s Legislature
remains low but more or less steady, registering at 36 percent compared to 38
percent in the fall.
Thirty-two percent disapprove of the
Legislature, and 30 percent don’t know or give no answer. Opinions about who
should control the Legislature also divide roughly into thirds. Twenty-nine
percent of Tennesseans want Democrats in control, while 35 percent want
Republicans in control, and another 35 percent don’t care who is in control.
The rest give no answer.
Partisan loyalties underlie these
Legislative control attitudes, with about three-fourths of Democrats preferring
Democratic control and about about three-fourths of Republicans preferring
Republican control. A 46 percent plurality of independents express no
preference, but 34 percent prefer Republican control, and 18 percent prefer
Democratic control.
Sample
and method
The poll was
conducted by telephone Feb. 15-27 by
students in the College of Mass Communication at Middle Tennessee State
University. Students interviewed 634 people age 18 or older chosen at random
from the state population. The poll has an estimated error margin of ± 4
percentage points at the 95 percent level of confidence. Theoretically, this
means that a sample of this size should produce a statistical portrait of the
population within 4 percentage points 95 out of 100 times. Other factors, such
as question wording, also affect the outcome of a survey. Error margins are
greater for sample subgroups.
The sample
varied somewhat from the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest available estimates for
age, race and gender proportions within the state. Such variation commonly
occurs because certain demographic groups are more difficult to contact. The
data were thus weighted to more closely match Census projections for these
demographics. Here are the Census data, the sample data, and the weights:
|
Unadjusted |
Adjusted |
||
|
Census |
Sample |
Sample |
|
|
Percent |
Percent |
Percent |
|
|
Age: |
|||
|
18-34 |
29.5 |
12.5 |
29.5 |
|
35-49 |
28.3 |
23.3 |
28.3 |
|
50-64 |
24.9 |
35.3 |
25.0 |
|
65+ |
17.3 |
28.8 |
17.2 |
|
Race: |
|||
|
White |
82.1 |
87.2 |
81.7 |
|
Black |
15.5 |
9.0 |
15.7 |
|
Other |
2.4 |
3.8 |
2.6 |
|
Gender: |
|||
|
Male |
48.0 |
48.3 |
47.6 |
|
Female |
52.0 |
51.7 |
52.4 |
Small variations in reported percentages (1 percent or less) sometimes result
from rounding variations in different statistical procedures or the way
different programs handle population weights. Weights also can increase the reported
sample size in frequency tables. And, in our summary, where reported
percentages do not otherwise total 100 percent, small numbers of those who are
undecided or refused to answer may have been omitted.