Comparing Independents to Other Voters.

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The following data is from three AP-Ipsos polls conducted in July, August and September. The surveys involved telephone interviews with 3,007 adults and have a combined margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Independent sare people who insisted they favor neither major party after being prodded during the survey to say which party they tend to support.


(*) Gender:

Independents: 49 percent male, 51 percent female;

Republicans: 53 percent male, 47 percent female;

Democrats: 45 percent male, 55 percent female.


(*) Income:

Independents: 68 percent under $50,000 annually, 13 percent $50,000 to $75,000, 19 percent over $75,000;

Republicans: 43 percent under $50,000 annually, 22 percent $50,000 to $75,000, 35 percent over $75,000;

Democrats: 54 percent under $50,000 annually, 20 percent $50,000 to $75,000, 26 percent over $75,000.


(*) Education:

Independents: 41 percent high school or less, 33 percent some college, 26 percent college graduate;

Republicans: 27 percent high school or less, 33 percent some college, 40 percent college graduate;

Democrats: 33 percent high school or less, 30 percent some college, 38 percent college graduate.


(*) Age:

Independents: 49 percent under age 45, 51 percent age 45 and older;

Republicans: 46 percent under age 45, 54 percent age 45 and older;

Democrats: 44 percent under age 45, 56 percent age 45 and older.


(*) Residence:

Independents: 34 percent urban, 49 percent suburban, 17 percent rural;

Republicans: 26 percent urban, 53 percent suburban, 21 percent rural;

Democrats: 34 percent urban, 49 percent suburban, 17 percent rural.


(*) Ideology:

Independents: 20 percent liberal, 37 percent moderate, 28 percent conservative, 16 percent don't know;

Republicans: 8 percent liberal, 28 percent moderate, 63 percent conservative, 2 percent don't know;

Democrats: 37 percent liberal, 37 percent moderate, 22 percent conservative, 4 percent don't know.


(*) Evangelical or born again Christians:

Independents: 36 percent;

Republicans: 50 percent;

Democrats: 33 percent.


(*) Ethnicity:

Independents: 57 percent white, 14 percent black, 21 percent Hispanic;

Republicans: 82 percent white, 4 percent black, 7 percent Hispanic;

Democrats: 62 percent white, 16 percent black, 14 percent Hispanic.


One very interesting thing that can be gleaned from the above survey is that while Liberals make up only 37% of those Democrats polled (59% self-identify as Conservative or Moderate), Conservatives comprise 63% of the GOP and overall, the survey shows that 22% of the respondents self-identified as “Liberal,” almost twice as many, 38% self-identified as “Conservative.”

While there was little difference in the number of College graduates between Democrats (38%) and Republicans (40%), fewer Independents (26%) were college graduates.

Interestingly enough, 36% of Independents identified themselves as Evangelical Christians. Even more interesting is that 33% of Democrats also identified as Evangelical Christians!

Ideologically, 28% of Independents identified themselves as Conservative, while only 20% identified as Liberal and 37% as Moderate.

Even more interesting is that fully 22% of Democrats identified themselves ideologically as Conservatives, which could, in part account for the shift in the kind of Democrats being elected to Congress – with last November’s gains, fully 21% of the Democrats in Congress are now “New (Blue Dog/Conservative) Democrats!


SEE: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070923/ap_po/irked_independents_numbers;_ylt=AuS7FL0UyKAU.yNdHjA4D1Bh24cA