Democrats Lead on Economy, Immigration, Energy in Swing States Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Democrats are getting a boost from the economy, the war in Iraq and unhappiness with President George W. Bush s leadership, according to a Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll.
With the elections less than two weeks away, the poll of terrorism, where Republicans still hold a small edge.
Majorities in each state -- Ohio, Virginia, Tennessee, New Jersey and Missouri -- disapprove of the job Bush is doing, and say the country needs to move in a new direction. Democrats score better than Republicans on handling the economy, taxes, gasoline prices and immigration.
competitive House and Senate races. Taken together, voters in the margin than those in the nation as a whole.
states, said Amy Walter, an analyst for the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan newsletter in Washington.
``For Republicans weeks, it doesn t seem to be happening.
issues, their states partisan preferences are still evident in the poll findings.
In strongly Democratic New Jersey and in swing-state Ohio, Iraq, the economy, taxes, gasoline prices, and immigration; in traditionally Republican Missouri and Tennessee, Republicans fare better with voters than they do in other states.
Respondents in Virginia, which has been a Republican stronghold, are in the middle but trending toward the Democrats.
Kenny Buchhold, a Virginia voter from Midlothian and a self- described independent, said he no longer trusts Republicans more to defend the nation. ``They bungled the mission in Afghanistan, and Iraq was folly to begin with, said the 42-year-old computer consultant, a respondent in the poll who was contacted for a The poll of 2,314 likely voters in the five states was taken Oct.
20 to Oct. 23. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 4 percentage points in Ohio, Missouri and Tennessee, plus or minus 5 percentage points in Virginia, and plus or minus 5.
5 percentage points in New Jersey.
market hits record highs, gasoline prices plunge and the unemployment rate stands at a five-year-low.
because of the Bush s policies of the past six years.
In New Jersey, 53 percent of respondents said worse, versus 26 percent who said better. In Missouri, the margin narrowed to 41 percent to 33 percent.
better job of dealing with high fuel prices, and several prices as just a ploy to boost Republicans chances on Nov.
7.
``After the elections are over, the oil companies are going to have free rein again, said Denzil Norrod, 59, a retired auto-body repairman from Huber Heights, Ohio.
stick.
Voters in Ohio, New Jersey, and Virginia say Democrats would do a better job handling taxes than Republicans. The two parties came in about even in Missouri and Tennessee.
low, at 4.
6 percent in September, it is higher in several of the battleground states, including New Jersey and Missouri. Ohio, with a 5.2 percent unemployment rate, has lost 152,000 non-farm jobs since Bush took office in January, 2001.
While some new jobs were added in the service sector, about 195,000 manufacturing jobs disappeared during that period.
immigrants. In these five states, the voters prefer Democrats on the issue, though the margin was a statistically insignificant 2 percentage points in Missouri.
That may suggest that the issue is converts.
isn t addressing, said Susan Lewis, of King City, Missouri. The mostly for Democratic candidates.
On Iraq, respondents in Ohio, New Jersey, and Virginia thought Democrats would do a better job, while voters in Tennessee gave a slight edge to the Republicans.
At the same time, respondents in all five states agreed that the situation in Iraq wasn t worth going to war over. The margin was greatest in New Jersey, 73 percent to 21 percent, and smallest in Tennessee, with a margin of 50 percent to 45 percent.
international terrorism, while majorities in Ohio, New Jersey and Virginia saw the war as separate from the anti-terror fight.
with Bush that U.S.
troops should stay in Iraq ``as long as it takes to stabilize the country. In New Jersey nearly as many said the U.S.
should ``get out now.
In recent weeks, Democrats and Republicans have traded develop nuclear weapons. Voters in Ohio blamed the Bush administration, while those in Missouri blamed former President who was more at fault.
Looking at the overall poll results, ``the message that it s do better is working, said Stuart Rothenberg, publisher of the Washington-based Rothenberg Political Report.
like Joey Franks, a 31-year-old hospital worker from Savannah, Tennessee, who described himself as a lifelong Republican. ``I m shot at things, he said.
News RSS