Saguaro
11-02-2007, 10:50 AM
WASHINGTON -- A majority of white, conservative Christian Republicans would consider voting for a conservative third-party candidate should the 2008 presidential race pit Hillary Rodham Clinton against Rudy Giuliani, a poll said Wednesday, a new survey finds.
The nonpartisan Pew Research Center's findings, just released, was the latest reading of discontent among one of the GOP's cornerstone voting blocs. Giuliani, the leading Republican contender in most national polls, is a former New York mayor whose views on abortion, gays and guns are considered too moderate by many conservatives.
According to the poll, 55 percent of white evangelical Republicans said they would consider a conservative who ran as a third-party candidate. Forty-two percent said they would not.
Evangelicals comprise 34 percent of GOP and Republican-leaning voters, according to Pew. They are divided about evenly among Giuliani, Fred Thompson and Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
It is unclear whether a third-party bid would be launched should Giuliani become the GOP nominee. Several dozen conservative Christian leaders met privately in September to discuss that possibility, but top evangelicals said they have reached no consensus.
The evangelicals' dissatisfaction reflects a general GOP discontent.
Republicans not only are less engaged in the campaign, but they also rate their party's presidential candidates more negatively than do Democrats, Pew found. About 46 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents rated the Republican presidential candidates as only fair or poor. Twenty-eight percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents give the Democratic presidential field comparably low ratings.
Overall, 50 percent of Americans identified themselves as Democrats or leaning toward Democrats, compared to 36 percent who consider themselves Republicans or GOP leaners, Pew found. That is the largest gap in almost 20 years of Pew surveys, and a big change since 2002, when the two parties were even at 43 percent each.
Clinton, the senator from New York, leads Democratic contenders in national polls.
The poll involved telephone interviews with 2,007 people conducted from Oct. 17-23. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. That included 648 Republicans and GOP-leaners, for whom the margin of sampling error was plus or minus 4.5 points.
http://www.wbaltv.com/politics/14485010/detail.html
The nonpartisan Pew Research Center's findings, just released, was the latest reading of discontent among one of the GOP's cornerstone voting blocs. Giuliani, the leading Republican contender in most national polls, is a former New York mayor whose views on abortion, gays and guns are considered too moderate by many conservatives.
According to the poll, 55 percent of white evangelical Republicans said they would consider a conservative who ran as a third-party candidate. Forty-two percent said they would not.
Evangelicals comprise 34 percent of GOP and Republican-leaning voters, according to Pew. They are divided about evenly among Giuliani, Fred Thompson and Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
It is unclear whether a third-party bid would be launched should Giuliani become the GOP nominee. Several dozen conservative Christian leaders met privately in September to discuss that possibility, but top evangelicals said they have reached no consensus.
The evangelicals' dissatisfaction reflects a general GOP discontent.
Republicans not only are less engaged in the campaign, but they also rate their party's presidential candidates more negatively than do Democrats, Pew found. About 46 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents rated the Republican presidential candidates as only fair or poor. Twenty-eight percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents give the Democratic presidential field comparably low ratings.
Overall, 50 percent of Americans identified themselves as Democrats or leaning toward Democrats, compared to 36 percent who consider themselves Republicans or GOP leaners, Pew found. That is the largest gap in almost 20 years of Pew surveys, and a big change since 2002, when the two parties were even at 43 percent each.
Clinton, the senator from New York, leads Democratic contenders in national polls.
The poll involved telephone interviews with 2,007 people conducted from Oct. 17-23. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. That included 648 Republicans and GOP-leaners, for whom the margin of sampling error was plus or minus 4.5 points.
http://www.wbaltv.com/politics/14485010/detail.html